Assessing species and functional diversity and community structure for weeds in wheat and sugar beet in Iran

In order to investigate species and functional diversity and community structure for weeds in wheat and sugar beet fields in different provinces of Iran, this study was conducted by using data from a previous projects on weed control conducted by Ministry of Jihad Keshavarzi. Total number of weed species were 72 and 52 species in wheat and sugar beet, respectively. In the wheat fields, Poaceae and Asteraceae showed the most diversity amongst monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous groups. In the sugar beet fields, Poaceae and Brassicaceae were the most diverse family amongst monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous groups. Provinces were grouped in three clusters for functional weed groups in wheat and sugar beet fields (similarity 75%). Tehran and East Azerbaijan had the highest similarity percentage (71%) amongst the provinces for weed diversity in wheat. In sugar beet fields, the highest similarity percentage was observed in Hamedan and Kohkiloyieh va boier-ahmad (71%), Ilam-Ardabil and Khoozestan-Ardabil provinces showed the lowest.