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THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEED SEEDBANK EXPERIMENT WITH THREE WATER LEVEL CONDITIONS IN BALIK PULAU RICE FIELDS AGRO ECOSYSTEM

Nadhirah Abd Aziz, Mashhor Mansor


Weed seedbank experiment was conducted in plant house of School of Biological Sciences USM from 20th of December 2013 until 20th of May 2014. The experiment was started by soil sampling at four different rice field plots (Pokok Kenanga, Tok Kiat, Fasa 3, and Sungai Burung Darat) in Balik Pulau rice fields agro ecosystem. There were four types of soils that were sampled including sandy soil, mangrove soil, muddy soil, and also clay soil. The soil samples were brought back to USM to be examined. In addition, there were three water level (saturated, partial, and flooded) conditions applied in this experiment. Subsequently, the emergence of weed seedlings was counted and recorded as absence and presence. From the observation, there were 12 weeds species that emerged in this experiment such as Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv, Echinochloa colona (L.) Link, Ischaemum rugosum Salisb., Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees., Oryza sativa complex (L.), Cyperus difformis (L.), Cyperus iria (L.), Fimbristylis milliacea (L.) Vahl, Lemna minor L., Ludwigia hyssopifolia (G.Don) Exell, Monochoria vaginalis (Burm.f.) Presl, and Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. The highest emergence of weeds species in sandy, mangrove, muddy, and clay soils were Monochoria vaginalis, Leptochloa chinensis, Echinochloa crus galli, and Sphenoclea zeylanica respectively. The total number of weeds seedlings present were higher in sandy soil (86 seedlings) followed by clay soil (69 seedlings), mangrove soil (44 seedlings), and muddy soil (26 seedlings). As a conclusion, the grasses and sedges weeds were higher in saturated and partial water level conditions meanwhile broadleaved weeds mostly can be found in flooded water level condition.