From France to Spain to explore non-transitive weed interactions

From January to March, Dr Guillaume Adeux (INRAE Dijon) carried out his secondment at INIA-CSIC in Madrid within the NeutraWeed project.

His work focused on non-transitive competitive interactions in weed communities: dynamics that may help explain how low-impact weed species can reduce the competitive pressure of more aggressive weeds on crops.

Guillaume collaborated with the INIA-CSIC team to survey over 400 quadrats in long-term winter wheat plots, identifying natural combinations of 11 weed species and collecting data to assess their impact on crop productivity. 

During his stay, he also provided statistical support to Elansurya Elangovan Vennila, a PhD student supervised by Prof. Eva Hernández, and prepared ongoing joint work that will continue during her upcoming visit to Dijon. The secondment also expanded his international network, leading to new collaborations with researchers from IMIDRA and CITA, and the planning of a future research stay for a CITA PhD student in France.

Guillaume additionally attended an advanced course on Bayesian spatial mixed models, strengthening his methodological toolbox for NeutraWeed analyses. He and Elansurya are now finalising a manuscript on weed diversity and winter wheat productivity, with a planned submission by the end of the year.

Stay tuned for further results from this line of research within NeutraWeed!