Climate change impacts on crop-weed interaction and herbicide efficacy

Weeds are likely to show more resilience and adaptation to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and tem-perature than crops because of their diverse gene pool and greater physiological plasticity. In agroecosystems, C3 and C4 plants exhibit varied responses to elevated CO2 (eCO2) and temperature (eTem), which can impact the crop-weed competition and efficacy of herbicides. Most C3 plants respond positively to eCO2 by increasing their photosynthetic rate and biomass production. Weeds compete with crops for nutrients, water and light, and considerably reduce yield and quality of the produce. Hence more attention is needed on crop-weed interaction and management under changing climate to ensure sus-tainable agricultural production. This study emphasizes on the impacts of climate change on crop-weed inter-action, herbicide efficacy and weed flora shift, and also highlights the research gaps for further studies.