Virtual skylarks suffer weed shortfall
By Susan Milius
A mathematical simulation suggests that the proliferation of crops genetically modified to resist herbicides might mean the downfall of some seed-eating birds.
That’s one scenario to come out of a new farm-field model developed by Andrew R. Watkinson and his colleagues at University of East Anglia in England. In the Sept. 1 Science, they describe what could happen to a common farmland weed (Chenopodium album)—and to the skylarks that eat its seeds—as farms switch from conventional sugar beets to genetically engineered varieties, such as Roundup Ready Beets produced by Monsanto in St. Louis.