Application of DEXI PM Vigne sustainability tool to the assessment of alternative vineyard protection strategies

Spain is the country with the largest wine-producing area in the EU and its productivity is largely controlled applying fungicides. However, residues of these compounds can move and contaminate surface and groundwater. The objective of this work was to evaluate the capacity of bioadsorbents from different origin to adsorb and immobilize tetraconazole by themselves or when applied as organic soil amendment, and to prevent soil and water contamination by this fungicide. The adsorption of tetraconazole by 3 organic residues: spent mushroom substrate (SMS), green compost (GC) and vine pruning sawdust (VP), as well as by vineyard soils unamended and amended individually with these residues at 1.5% (w/w) was evaluated using the batch equilibrium technique.

The market trend heads to food products with less chemical inputs, including in oenology. During the winemaking process, sulfites are commonly use to avoid microbiological contamination and stabilization of the wine thanks to its antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. Nevertheless, this use is not without consequences on human health and environment, leading for example to allergic reaction and pollution. A biological alternative to these sulfites has emerges: the bioprotection.

By dissecting the root system architecture (RSA) into its underpinning components (e.g. root emission, axial growth, radial growth, branching, root direction or tropism) and identifying the relationships between them, functional-structural 3D root models are promising tools for analyzing the diversity and complexity of root system phenotypes with Genotype × Environment interactions. The model parameters are assumed to be synthetic traits, less influenced by the environment, and consequently with less polygenic architectures than the integrative RSA traits they drive. Root models can serve as a basis for in silico development of root system ideotypes by highlighting the developmental processes and parameters that most likely influence RSA fitness.

In the 19th century, devastating outbreaks of phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch), almost brought European viticulture to its knees. Phylloxera does not only take energy in form of sugars from the vine, but also affects the up- and down- regulations of genes, acts as a carbon sink and reprograms the physiology of the grapevines, including nutrient uptake and the defense system [1]. A key trait of rootstocks is the ability to perform well under high lime conditions as about 30 % of the land surface has calcareous soil. Iron deficiency not only causes the well-known problems of lime-induced chlorosis and stunted growth, but also affects the entire plant metabolism.

The recovery of ancestral or minority vine varieties has been gaining great interest in recent years, among other reasons because it is likely that some of these varieties, due to the fact that they are found in relict areas, have a greater potential for adaptation to external factors (biotic or abiotic) and can minimize the effects that climate change is causing in viticulture. Varieties that can be grown at altitude are currently being sought to combat rising temperatures and prolonged extreme drought conditions. In Catalonia, the Pyrenean expansion of vineyard cultivation is documented from the 10th century and has been related to the “small climatic optimum” (9th-12th centuries) and also to seigniorial power.[1] But different adverse climatic periods and the arrival of Phylloxera by the late 19th century made many of these crops disappear.[2]