Guest post by Saige Crawley, Binghamton University ’25
As a summer technician for the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program (NYSIPM), based at Cornell AgriTech’s Geneva campus, I gained insight into the world of research and how the things I’m learning in school can be applied to the outside world.
For my project, I worked with Bryan Brown, Ph.D., a weed IPM specialist on his weed seedbank project. Over the course of the summer, we gathered soil samples from 50 farms across New York and analyzed weed species abundance for each farm. Currently this project is in the data collection phase, but upon completion, each participating grower will receive personalized weed management recommendations based on their weed seedbank and unique farm goals. The success of this project hinged on me identifying and removing weeds from plots, and as a result, I have become adept at identifying weeds and grasses. I now regularly find myself unconsciously calling out the names of weeds I pass on the sidewalk or by the side of the road.
My main interests in research are genetics and evolutionary biology, and it was very interesting to view the weed research through that context. Different management practices don’t simply make weeds less likely to grow, weeds are not a monolith. But rather, the unique traits of each species is responsible for causing some to thrive and some to fail under the same conditions. Weed management changes the “filters” which select for or against certain species. It is also important to consider phenotypic differences within a species, as treatment plans can impact those as well. For example, herbicide treatments can select for herbicide resistant individuals within a species. Therefore, it’s important to consider the conditions a management plan creates, which weeds will be selected for under those conditions, and which weeds are the most problematic and warrant the most control.
With everything I’ve learned during my summer at NYSIPM, I’m confident that the continued research of this program will be invaluable to the field of integrated pest management. Research has applications everywhere, and I was very fortunate to see my work being used to help growers in my state.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LNE23-470-AWD00001024, Elevating Weed Seedbank Management with Tailored Recommendations and New Tactics.
