Darwin Hickman

Weeds are a major cause of crop yield losses. Many dominant weeds of agriculture are able to adapt quickly to attempts to manage them, for example through evolution of herbicide resistance, or phenotypic alterations to tolerate or avoid attempts at physical control. My work at SLU as a member of the Weed Ecology and Management Group involves examining the behaviour of weed communities and their response and adaptation to management factors, and considering novel methods to reduce their detriment for crop yield.

I am a Guest Lecturer on the module 'Sustainable Plant Production- From Molecular to Field Scale', part of the Master program in Plant Biology for Sustainable Production, as well as the modules 'Sustainable food production - challenges and cropping system solutions', and 'The ecology of cropping systems'.

I am leading DIVERSOW, a two-year project in collaboration with postdoctoral colleagues from the Department of Crop Production Ecology and funded by Ekhagastiftelsen, which examines the potential of landrace and heritage wheat to contribute to agroecosystem and crop health in Swedish organic systems.

I am also a co-applicant and collaborator on the project 'Farmer driven development of economically and environmentally sustainable weed control strategies against blackgrass', funded by Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning (SLF).

I am also involved in the development of a new long-term field experiment, BLANDSKAP, which aims to identify the value of landscape and management diversity for agricultural sustainability.

• 2023- current- Postdoctoral Researcher in Crop Production Ecology, SLU, Sweden.
• 2017-2022- PhD in Biointeractions and Crop Protection, Rothamsted Research/ University of Nottingham, UK.
• 2016-2018- MRes in Biosciences, Swansea University, UK.
• 2012-2016- BSc (Hons) in Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK.
• 2014-15- Undergraduate Placement Year in Biological Control of Weeds, Manaaki Whenua (Landcare Research), New Zealand.

• 2024- MSc. Dissertation: Arable plant community and trait composition in agricultural field margins  and their implications for sustainable crop production, Uppsala University (Co-Supervisor).
• 2024- BSc Dissertation: The potential for landraces to be used for climate adaptation in Swedish agriculture, SLU (Lead Supervisor).
• 2023- BSc Dissertation: Arable plant diversity on Gotland, Sweden, Uppsala University (Co-Supervisor).

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Hickman, D. T., Withall, D. M., Caulfield, J. C., Comont, D., Ritz, K., Neve, P., Rasmussen, A., & Birkett, M. A., 2025. Variation in suppression of black-grass by modern and ancestral cereal root exudates. Plant Biology.
• Hickman, D. T., MacLaren, C., & Menegat, A., 2025. The effect of agronomic filters on arable plant communities: What weeds are we selecting for? Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 386, 109604.
• Hickman, D. T., Comont, D., Rasmussen, A., & Birkett, M. A., 2023. Novel and holistic approaches are required to realize allelopathic potential for weed management. Ecology and Evolution, 13(4), e10018. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10018.
• Hickman, D. T., Rasmussen, A., Ritz, K., Birkett, M. A. and Neve, P., 2021. Allelochemicals as multi‐kingdom plant defence compounds: towards an integrated approach. Pest Management Science, 77(3), pp.1121-1131. https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.6076.
• Lange, C., Goeke, D. F., Hickman, D. T., Podolyan, A., & Houliston, G. J., 2018. Chloroplast diversity of giant buttercup (Ranunculus acris L., Ranunculaceae) in New Zealand and in its native range. New Zealand Journal of Botany, 56(4), pp. 385-395. https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.2018.1509877.

Other Publications

• Hickman, D. T., Dahlin, S., Bergkvist, G., Owusu-Sekyere, E., & Danielsson, R., 2024. A new long-term experiment to evaluate and demonstrate agricultural sustainability at Lövsta Field Research Station. Mistra Food Futures Report, #24