Role of landscape diversity for biodiversity conservation in viticulture: life+ biodivine’s results

Nowadays biodiversity loss is considered as a prior environmental issue. Agricultural landscapes are particularly concerned, mainly through the specialization and intensification of farming activities which lead, at a larger scale, to landscape simplification. Landscape management would be a good means to halt biodiversity loss, but large-scale studies remain rare. The life+ project BioDiVine aims to understand biodiversity dynamics and promote sustainable conservation actions at this scale in viticulture. 

Seven demonstration sites, in France, Spain and Portugal, followed common protocols in order to quantify biodiversity in vineyard plots and evaluate its possible link with the surrounding landscape. In each area, arthropods were monitored on 25 selected plots, from 2011 to 2013. Arthropods were sampled by non-selective trapping stations set into vines and semi-natural habitats (2011) and exclusively inside vine plots (2012-2013). They were sorted out using the Rapid Biodiversity Assessment method. Then, abundance and richness indices were calculated. The landscape surrounding each trapping station (400m radius) was characterized through a GIS database. Then, indices such as proportion of semi-natural habitats have been calculated. 

Semi-natural habitats show higher arthropods richness than vineyards, with a significant difference in richness values of 20 to 50%, depending on demonstration sites. On all French demonstration sites, a significant positive correlation was shown between the proportion of semi-natural habitats in a 400 m buffer area and the arthropods richness inside the vine plot. These results support the action program of the BioDiVine project, which consists in encouraging landscape management actions such as planting hedgerows or restoring semi-natural elements connectivity. This can be an efficient way to support biodiversity and promote environmental-friendly wine production. Yet, these actions have to be collectively managed to reach their maximum efficiency, and require a huge coordination effort.