e-mail: valentina@hbj.udl.cat
phone: +34 973702911
fax: +34 973 23 82 64

Dept. Hortofruticultura, Botánica y Jardineria
Escola Técnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agraria
Universitat de Lleida
Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida
Spain

Research interests: Harvester ants (Messor barbarus) are responsible for harvesting and destroying almost the entire seed production of weeds in dryland cereals in Catalonia. This may allow for a considerable reduction in use of herbicides, costs and environmental burden caused by herbicides, and it may favour plant diversity. Various mechanisms may be responsible for the persistence of weeds despite of the presence of harvester ants. These include 1) escape from exposure to ants through seed burial, 2) inversely density dependent response of ants to weed patches and 3) differential weed seed preference. To investigate these mechanisms, I will perform the following trials. 1) Seed escape. Known numbers of ceramic beads of various sizes and densities will be exposed on the soil surface after crop harvest on conventional and no-till fields and the burial rate will be determined based on counts of visible beads over time. 2) Density-dependent response. Known numbers of seeds will be applied to the surface of pre-determined areas after crop harvest. Final seed densities will be assessed using a vacuum cleaner to collect surface seeds. 3) Seed preference. A range of weed seeds will be offered to a large number of harvester ant colonies at different times during the year and at different distances from the nests. The speed with which seeds are harvested will be used as a measure of preference.

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Projects

- Analysis of plant diversity in winter cereal systems and role of field margins on weed seed predation. Plan Nacional I+D+I, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Project AGL 2007-60828). Period 2007-2010. Main researcher: Jordi Recasens Guinjuan.
- PhD project: Weed control through seed predation by harvester ants (Messor spp.); ecosystems services provided by functional biodiversity. Tutor/a: Paula Westerman.

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Last update: 03-03-09

© University of Lleida

Weed Research Group of the University of Lleida
School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering (ETSEA) University of Lleida
Alcalde Rovira Roure• 25198 LLEIDA (SPAIN)
Email: Weed Research Group responsible: jrecasens@hbj.udl.es