Impact of organic inputs on soil biodiversity in vineyard systems. A monitoring approach during 20 years

Conventional vineyard practices have lead in many environmental disturbances as erosion, soil compaction, loss of organic matter and soil biodiversity, water contamination… Therefore, there is an increasing interest to develop sustainable viticulture in the famous Champagne vineyard for 20 years: a program called “VITI 2000” has been developed since 1986 by CIVC (Inter-professional Committee of Champagne Wine) in collaboration with scientists. The aims are i) to assess the impact of viticultural practices on soil functioning, environmental properties and wine quality, ii) to advice progressively sustainable practices to winegrowers. One strength of this program is to allow a long term field experiment: earthworm communities, microbial biomass, soil and vine parameters were followed during 25 years in 19 plots representing 66 treatments to test the impact of pesticides applications (nematicides, fungicides, herbicides), or organic matter inputs, or vine management (organic vs conventional vs integrated). This program ended in a huge data collection e.g. the data table of earthworm communities (species, body mass, sexual stage) presents more than 39 000 lines. A database, compatible to others soil fauna databases developed by the laboratory EcoBio (University Rennes 1), has been developed. First results indicate that i) grass strip between the vine rows and compost quickly stimulate biological soil processes, while dried organic matter inputs have a slow positive impact, ii) fungicides containing copper alter in the same pattern earthworms and microorganisms, iii) integrated management could be as positive as organic practices. Statistical treatments are still going on and further results will be discussed.