REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "WEEDS IN THE CHANGING WORLD: ACUTE ISSUES OF THEIR STUDY, DIVERSITY, ORIGIN, EVOLUTION"

    In the period from December 6 – 8, 2011 the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) hosted an international conference "Weeds in the changing world: acute issues of their study, diversity, origin, evolution" dedicated to traditional “domestic” studies of weeds, as well as theoretical, methodological and practical problems related to weeds in the Russian flora and neighboring countries. The conference was attended by 116 participants from four CIS-countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Attendees made over 26 reports and review five poster presentations.

    The conference covered the following topics:

   1 Weeds - ancestors of cultivated plants

   2 Composition of weedy flora and systematics of individual taxa

   3 Ecological and geographical features of weeds

   4 Study methods of weed diversity

   5 Monitoring of weeds and quarantine issues

   6 Alien species as a source of weeds

   7 Databases as a tool for weed analysis

    The conference covered a wide range of issues including systematics of individual weed taxa, problems of cultivated plants originated from weeds, composition of weedy flora, ecological and geographical features of weeds, problems of alien species as a source of weeds and quarantine issues.

    During the conference there were organized two "Round tables":

    1. "Weeds: basic concepts and terms", moderator D. Geltman (V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg).

    As a result of the "Round Table" participants established a commission that is going to prepare a list of key terms related to weeds with comments and literature review for further publication. The commission will include: L.M. Abramova, L.V. Bagmet, O. Baranova, Y.K. Vinogradov, D.V. Geltman, G.Y. Konechnaya, N. Lunev, T.N. Smekalova, T.A. Terekhina.

    2. "Weeds: need for conservation", moderator T. Smekalova (VIR, St. Petersburg).

    During the "Round Table" there were discussed possible ways of weed conservation. Upon the discussion participants adopted a resolution stating a need to:

    1. conserve certain weed species and first of all - specialized weeds, i.e. narrowly confined to plantings of certain cultivated crops (common corncockle (agrostemma githago), field pea (pisum sativum), linaria, camelina, etc.);

    2. conserve plants listed in item 1 mainly in fields, as well as more widely discuss (in the press, at conferences, workshops, etc.) the possibility of conservation of endangered weeds in botanical gardens;

    3. include rare and endangered weeds into the regional “Red Data Books”, as well as to prepare “Regional Red Lists of weeds”;

    4. create the so-called "Herbaria of weed seed plants", i.e. seed collections of weeds under the regional botanical institutions.

    Based on the conference`s results a resolution was prepared and adopted.

    By the beginning of the conference its proceedings entitled: "Weeds in the changing world: acute issues of their study, diversity, origin, evolution" were published. In 2012 "VIR`s proceedings" are going to be issued, they will comprise an expanded publications based on the reports selected by the Organizing Committee.