Tillage system did not affect weed diversity in a 23-year experiment in Mediterranean dryland

This study investigated whether the choice of a tillage system (no-tillage, minimum tillage or traditional tillage) affected weed diversity in a 23 years cereal–leguminous rotation system in Spain. Weed diversity was assessed using common diversity indices: species richness, Shannon's index and Pieloús evenness. Linear mixed-effects models were employed to compare the tillage systems. It was found that after 23 years no large differences between tillage systems have arisen related to weed diversity. Only minimum tillage appeared to support, on average, more species than the two other tillage systems. Richness, Shannon diversity index and evenness varied largely through the years in all tillage systems but this variation was not related to type of crop sown (cereal or leguminous). Our results highlight that conservation tillage practices did not represent any concern for weed diversity conservation in cereal–leguminous rotations in the conditions of central Spain.This work has been partially funded by FEDER funds and the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science (Projects AGL2007-65698-C03-03 and AGL2009-7883).Peer reviewe