An early concern with the planting of trees and shrubs in channels was they would be too effective and cause the channel to migrate, especially in areas where the original channel was some distance, and lower, than the constructed channel. Although more sinuosity in a channelized stream might ultimately be a desirable objective, in the early phases of the project channel movement could have jeopardized establishment of newly planted vegetation. Anecdotally, there seemed to be substantially more raptors and upland game birds at the site than in surrounding fields or adjacent to Gerking Creek above and below the project. This was expected, as avian communities increase with increasing plant community complexity, including variety in plant size and life form, and accumulation of detritus . Before the project was begun, the site was a mono-cropped agricultural field, and in 2000 and 2001 the site supported a monoculture of the targeted-nonnative tall wheatgrass.
By 2008, we observed patchiness in the distribution of vegetation, with distinct areas of tall wheatgrass, non target-nonnative species , and accumulations of detritus in various states of decomposition throughout the site. In the Philippines, rice is the most important source of food, where it is mainly grown after intensive tillage in wet conditions. There are two seasons and farmers grow rice in both seasons. In dry seasons, however, rice requires a huge amount of water for puddling and planting . Farmers in Asia, including the Philippines, are expected to have limited irrigation water in the future to flood their rice fields.The risk of water scarcity may lead to changes in production systems to bring about less water demanding systems . They may include dry seeded rice and crop diversification. Soybean is one of such crops,mobile vertical rack which can be grown in dry seasons. Compared to rice monoculture systems, the rice-soybean cropping system may prove more water-efficient in the Philippines. At present, soybean is not grown on a large area in the Philippines; however, there is a trend of increasing its area in the response to water scarcity and need for crop diversification. In different countries, soybean is grown at different row spacing . The row spacing in soybean can vary from 19 to 76 cm . Narrow row spacing is known to suppress weed growth by closing crop canopy earlier than wider row spacing .
Narrow row spacing may also increase available moisture to the crop, for example, corn In soybean and corn, narrow row spacing was found to increase light interception . Soybean yield can also be influenced by the plant to plant spacing within a crop row. A computer search of published literature revealed that there is limited information available on the effect of row spacing and plant to plant spacing on the growth and grain yield of soybean in the Philippines. Plant geometry can also influence weed growth in the crop. A study was therefore conducted to evaluate the effect of plant geometry on the growth and yield of soybean at Los Baños, Philippines. Palmer amaranth is an important weed that has spread from its origin in southwestern North American, to eastern North America, Europe, Asia and Australia It has been reported to be resistant to several classes of herbicides including the triazines, acetolactate-synthase inhibitors, dinitroaniline, protoporphyrinogen oxidase inhibitors and glyphosate -. The molecular mode of action of glyphosate is inhibition of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase , a key enzyme in the shikimate pathway , responsible for the synthesis of aromatic amino acids and phenolic compounds, some of which are related to plant defense .
Currently, 44 weed species have been found resistant to glyphosate . Glyphosate resistance in Palmer amaranth plants has been attributed to high copy numbers of the EPSPS gene, compared to glyphosate-susceptible plants and high EPSPS copy numbers enable adequate EPSPS production and the concomitant synthesis of required aromatic amino acids even when high levels of glyphosate exist in the resistant plant tissues. The high EPSPS gene copy number trait is heritable when plants are cross-bred . The transfer of resistance through cross-breeding, its aggressive nature and the prolific seed-producing capacity of Palmer amaranth have intensified its spread. Previously we found two biotypes of Palmer amaranth in a population of this economically important weed that were resistant to glyphosate but differed with respect to pigmentation . One biotype was typically red-pigmented while the other was green, with no visual appearance of red hue on any plant part at any growth stage. The compounds responsible for these pigmentations are betalains, a small group of in dole-derived glycoside pigments.