Biotic & Abiotic Influences on Weed Seed Mortality in the Soil Seedbank

Ecological weed management is increasingly important due to accelerated herbicide resistance of weeds and support for sustainable farming practices. Targeting the soil seedbank can be an effective strategy as seed and seedling stages are when weeds are most vulnerable to mortality. Currently, we explore microbial communities and abiotic conditions within perennial forage and cover crop monocultures and mixtures which may best reduce weed seed viability. Our novel study employs Next Generation Sequencing to analyze 16S (bacterial) and ITS (fungal) diversity and abundance of weed seed endophytic microbes as well as soil microbes.