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UNIT 1: THE
NATURE OF WEEDS
1 The
nature of weeds
Topics: What is a weed? Weeds and human nature. Weedy traits. The
origins of weeds and crop domestication. Wild-crop-weed
complexes. World crop-weed species groups.
UNIT 2: THE
EVOLUTION OF WEED POPULATIONS
2
Evolution, natural selection and weedy
adaptation
Topics: Evolution. Natural selection
and the process of natural selection. Adaptation.
3
Formation of the local weed
population: Precondition to natural selection
Topics: Weedy opportunity, weedy habitats,
and niches in the local community. Habitat
heterogeneity and dynamics. Limiting resources
and pervasive conditions in local opportunity. The
nature of plant invasions of local opportunity.
4
Generation of genotypic and
phenotypic variation: First process of natural
selection
Topics: Genotypes and phenotypes. Generate genetic and phenotypic variation. Phenotypic plasticity and somatic polymorphism
5
Survival, reproduction and
inheritance: Second process of natural
selection
Topics: Survive, avoid mortality. Reproduce the fittest, eliminate the others. Inheritance: transmit
parental traits to offspring. Mating systems
and inheritance.
UNIT 3: ADAPTATION
IN WEED LIFE HISTORY
6 Weed
life history
Topics: Phenotypic life history traits. Plant life history classification systems. Ecological demography of plant population life
history dynamics. Evolutionary, trait-based,
weed life history population dynamics.
7
Reproductive adaptation
Topics: Flowering, anthesis, fertilization
and birth. Embryo adaptation: embryogenesis and dormancy. Evolutionary ecology of seed heteroblasty. Observable seed dormancy-germinability regulation
life forms. Propagule adaptation:
post-abscission fecundity.
8
Propagule dispersal in space
and time
Topics: The evolutionary ecology of
dispersal structures. Dispersal in space. Dispersal in time:
formation of seed pools in the soil. Propagule
germination and recruitment.
UNIT 4: ADAPTATION IN LOCAL PLANT COMMUNITIES
Weed-crop
communities as complex adaptive systems
9
Neighbor interactions in
local plant communities
Topics: Adaptation to neighbors in the
community. The nature of neighbor interactions
in the community. Strategic roles and traits
of interference and facilitation with neighbors. Effects
of neighborhood interactions on plant density, growth and form.
10
Weed community structure, dynamics and
biodiversity
Topics: Weed communities. Weed community structure: genotype structuring. Exploiting opportunity: weed community dynamics. Ecological roles-guilds-trades in weed-crop plant
communities. Changes in plant community
structure. Weed community biodiversity.
