Biodiversity-based ecosystem services in vineyards (Vinedivers)

Traditional viticulture usually was part of a multifunctional agricultural system including low- input grassland management and fruit production. Therefore, the high diversity of habitats resulted in a high functional biodiversity. However, in the last decades, land use changes, intensification and mechanisation of vineyard management caused a separation of production and conservation areas. Moreover, the fear of competition for water and nutrients between weeds and grapevines was a major driver of management measures like frequent tilling or intensive use of herbicides. These activities are nowadays associated with ecosystem disservices as very high rates of erosion, degradation of soil structure and fertility, contamination of groundwater and high levels of agricultural inputs. Basic hypothesis of this subproject is the assumption that a high diversity of functional plants directly at the plot scale as well as embedding of the plot scale into a structurally diverse landscape both lead to a measurable influence on soil parameters. In that way soils are improved as providers of ecosystem services. We want to investigate on this effect at the example of selected wine growing regions in Romania, Austria, France and Spain. Different scales of influence shall be tested. We therefore will need, at first hand a scale dependant system of classification of the tested scales which are plot, landscape unit and region. As a final result, a functional model of the interaction effects between management intensity and soil properties with special emphasis on erosion stability and soil water regime should be created. This model should enable a link between the different scales of investigation. Within a country specific characteristic wine growing region two ecologically different representative landscape units will be selected. Within each of the selected units the effects of two different management intensities on soil properties such as structural stability and soil water regime will be investigated. The results will serve to build a functional relationship which then will be used to simulate regional effects.

Traditional viticulture was part of a multifunctional agricultural system including diverse communities of organisms. In the last decades, changes of vineyard management and increasing mechanisation led to a simplification of landscape structure and intensification of vineyard management. Measures like frequent tilling or intensive use of herbicides are associated with ecosystem disservices such as high rates of erosion, degradation of soil structure, and a decline in biodiversity. The investigation of the consequences of vineyard inter-row management intensity for above- and below-ground biodiversity, ecosystem service provision, and related socio-economic factors was the main goal of VineDivers. Four regions in Austria, France, Spain and Romania which comprised of vineyards differing in management intensity (bare soil vs. vegetation cover) and surrounding landscape complexity were selected. In those viticultural ecosystems, soil biota, plants, wild bees, soil chemical and physical parameters and landscape parameters were investigated to analyse relations between different parameters and ecosystem services such as soil erosion mitigation, and landscape aesthetic value. Main part of BAW within this multidisciplinary project was to supply the different partner groups with information on soil properties of the selected test sites. Evaluations on the effect of different management intensities on soil physical properties in the different regions of Europe revealed contrasting results for different soil properties as well as different regions. This is also due to the fact that management intensities were heterogeneous with respect to the local perception of high intensity management and low intensity management. Improvement of soil physical parameters such as percolation stability, saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, bulk density and water retentions characteristics did in general correspond to the reduction of management intensity. However, the statistical significance of these effects was strongly site dependant even within a particular country. Soil physical parameters were usually strongly linked to the organic carbon contents of the sites which in turn were influenced by the time since the last tillage operation and the amounts of external supply with organic fertilizer. In total a complex picture of interaction between management and soil characteristics could be depicted. To enable a better representation of soil erosion risk in vineyards techniques were developed to obtain quantitative information on the temporal change of dead and living soil cover within vineyards. On that basis, parameter estimation for modelling of soil erosion risk of different management intensities could be carried out.