Reading the Soil Through Weeds: From Folk Indicators to Evidence-Based Bioindication of Edaphic Conditions in Agroecosystems

Loso Judijanto

doi:10.59890/ijgsr.v4i9.337

Authors

Loso Judijanto IPOSS Jakarta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59890/ijgsr.v4i9.337

Keywords:

Weeds; Soil Bioindicators; Soil Health; Edaphic Conditions; Ecological Indicator Values; Soil Compaction; Soil Fertility; Nitrogen; Soil Moisture; Weed Communities

Abstract

Weeds are conventionally viewed as competitors that reduce crop productivity, yet their presence, abundance, spatial distribution, and community composition may also provide information about underlying soil and environmental conditions. Popular agronomic narratives frequently associate Cyperus rotundus with compacted soil, Rumex crispus with acidic or poorly drained soil, Portulaca oleracea with fertile and loose soil, Amaranthus spp. with high nitrogen availability, and Plantago major with trampling and compaction. This qualitative literature review critically evaluates these claims using contemporary peer-reviewed evidence published predominantly between 2020 and 2026. The synthesis indicates that weed communities respond to soil physical, hydrological, and chemical gradients, including compaction, moisture, pH, salinity, organic matter, and nutrient availability. However, the relationships are strongly modified by tillage, irrigation, crop competition, fertilization, herbicide regimes, climate, propagule pressure, and historical seedbanks. Consequently, individual weed species generally have insufficient diagnostic specificity to function as stand-alone soil tests. Assemblage-level information, functional traits, ecological indicator values, repeated spatial observations, and targeted soil measurements provide more defensible inference

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