This program characterises new cases of herbicide resistance and seeks to discover and understand why and how weeds evolve resistance so fast. This work has been integral in assessing the risk of herbicide resistance in our AHRI labs before it is reported from the field and is useful to develop herbicide-based weed control strategies.
Our focus on the evolutionary dynamics of herbicide resistance has examined the impact of using low herbicide rates, and in a world-first, established that persistent use of the pre-emergent herbicide Sakura (pyroxasulfone) at low rates can lead to rapid resistance evolution in annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum).