Biodiversity of segetal weed community in continuous potato cultivated with metribuzin-based weed control

The objective of the work reported here was to determine the relationship between herbicide rate and the biodiversity of weed communities in potato cultivated in continuous cropping. A seven-year field experiment was conducted to examine the effect of 4 metribuzin rates and an uncontrol on weed infestation in successive years of continuous potato cultivation. The following indices were calculated: the Shannon-Wiener and Simpson’s indices of species diversity and the Simpson’s index of domination. A total of 33 species were recorded in the experimental plots. Echinochoa crus-galli was the dominant species. The most abundant segetal communities were observed in untreated plots. An application of the herbicide reduced the biodiversity of the agrophytocenosis. Cultivation in continuous cropping increased the species number of the weed community in potato. The herbicide and cultivation in continuous cropping did not significantly affect the biodiversity indices but their values, to a great extent, confirmed the trends revealed by the analysis of weed infestation.