Effects of environmental factors and vineyard pratices on wine flora dynamics

The intensification of t vineyard practices led to an impoverishment of the biological diversity. In vineyard management, the reflection to reduce pesticides uses concerns mainly the soil management of the vineyard, and often focuses on flora management in the inter-row. The goal of the present study is to gain more knowledge on the dynamic of vineyard flora, including relationships with environmental factors and soil practices. Assessment of floristic diversity was carried out for 5 fields of the research program PEPSVI in Alsace (France) on an area of 500 m ² within each of the fields. Soil management was either integrated or organic. Within each field, species richness was determined for the row (UR), the grassed inter-row (GIR), and the tilled inter-row (TIR) three times during each vine-growing season in 2014 and 2015. ANOVA tests were performed on data.

First we observed an average of 54 different species in the fields per year and that there are no significant differences between the different soil managements. The highest value belongs to organic soil management. The average species richness in organic fields is the highest in GIR (respectively 21 and 22 species in 2014 and 2015) and in UR (respectively 19 and 18 species in 2014 and 2015) and there is no significant difference between GIR and UR and between 2014 and 2015. The flora developed more considerably in the GIR (22 species) than UR (19 species) and less in TIR (16 species).

The results of the study showed also that superficial tillage i.e. scraping or harrowing, helps flora emergence and increases species richness (21 species in average against 14 in average for the other soil managements). The environment has also to be taken into account. Surrounding vegetation of the field influences significantly the species richness, (30 more species in the year for the most favorable environment). Next steps of the study will be the analysis of distribution of flora families and Raunkiær’s life.