 IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Influence of a spontaneous cover crop on the vineyard and soil erosion under Mediterranean climate

Influence of a spontaneous cover crop on the vineyard and soil erosion under Mediterranean climate

Abstract

Sixty five % of the agricultural area of the Basque Country located in the DO Ca Rioja corresponds to vineyards. More than 40% of it has an average slope greater than 10%, which makes it sensitive to erosive processes. Furthermore, it is foreseeable that extreme weather events (storms, hail, extreme heat and cold, etc.) will be favored due to climate change. Cover cropping can mitigate this risk, and therefore the objective of this work is to evaluate the impact that a vegetable cover has on the agronomic behavior of the vineyard, the quality of the grape and soil erosion. For this, a trial has been carried out with a Graciano variety vineyard with a slope between 10% -20% during the years 2020 and 2021. Conventional tillage management in the area has been compared (4-6 passes per year of tillage machinery) versus spontaneous vegetation cover management in the vineyard. This implies not tilling and allowing the grass of the land to colonize the range between the lines of vines, controlling their height through 1-3 mowing passes per year, always trying to affect the surface of the land as little as possible. The vegetative growth, yield and quality of the grape and wine was measured. Furthermore, erosion has been measured using Gerlasch boxes. The yield was lower in the second year of the trial in the cover crop treatment, but erosion was significantly reduced.

Download the PDF

DOI:

Publication date: May 31, 2022

Issue: Terclim 2022

Type: Poster

Authors

Roberto Perez-Parmo, Ana Aizpurua and Olatz Unamunzaga

NEIKER, Basque Institute of Agricultural Research and Development, Derio (Bizkaia), Spain

Contact the author

Keywords

soil erosion, cover crop, vineyard

Citation

A stratified sampling approach to investigate the impact of climate and maturity on the aroma and phenolic composition of grenache grapes and wines within the poctefa area

Context and purpose of the study. Climate change is affecting wine production and induces a large variability in wine composition between vintages.

Combined use of Lachancea thermotolerans and Schizosaccharomyces pombe in winemaking

Commercial red wines use the malolactic fermentation process to ensure stability from a microbiological point of view. In this second fermentation, malic acid is converted into L-lactic acid under controlled steps.

Effect of the commercial inoculum of arbuscular mycorrhiza in the establishment of a commercial vineyard of the cultivar “Manto negro“

The favorable effect of symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has been known and studied since the 60s. Nowadays, many companies took the chance to start promoting and selling commercial inoculants of AMF, in order to be used as biofertilizers and encourage sustainable biological agriculture. However, the positive effect of these commercial biofertilizers on plant growth is not always demonstrated, especially under field conditions. In this study, we used a commercial inoculum on newly planted grapevines of a local cultivar grafted on a common rootstock R110. We followed the physiological status of vines, growth and productivity and functional biodiversity of soil bacteria during the first and second years of 20 inoculated with commercial inoculum bases on Rhizophagus irregularis and Funeliformis mosseaeAMF at field planting time and 20 non-inoculated control plants. All the parameters measured showed a neutral to negative effect on plant growth and production. The inoculated plants always presented lower values of photosynthesis, growth and grape production, although in some cases the differences did not reach statistical significance. On the contrary, the inoculation supposed an increase of the bacterial functional diversity, although the differences were not statistically significant either. Several studies show that the effect of inoculation with AMF is context-dependent. The non-favorable effects are probably due to inoculation ineffectiveness under complex field conditions and/or that, under certain conditions, AMF presence may be a parasitic association. This puts into question the effectiveness of its application in the field. Therefore, it is recommended to only resort to this type of biofertilizer when the cultivation conditions require it (e.g., very low previous microbial diversity, foreseeable stress due to drought, salinity, or lack of nutrients) and not as a general fertilization practice.

Oligosaccharides from Vitis vinifera grape seeds: a focus on gentianose as a novel bioactive compound

AIM. Grape seeds (Vitis vinifera) are among the main constituents of grape pomace, also exploited in ingredients for nutraceutics and cosmeceutics, particularly regarding the phenolic fraction. The macromolecules of grape/wine include polyphenols, proteins and polysaccharides.

Thermal conditions during the grape ripening period in viticulture geoclimate. Cool night index and thermal amplitude

Le régime thermique en période de maturation du raisin est l’une des variables déterminantes de la coloration du raisin et de la richesse en arômes, anthocyanes et polyphénols des vins.