Terroir 2010 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Long-term vineyard sustainability index

Long-term vineyard sustainability index

Abstract

The impact of viticulture on soil can be determined by comparing the biophysical properties that represent soil health at a particular site and depth with those same properties in soil considered to represent the ‘pre-vineyard’ state (the headland). Information gathered by this method shows the changes in soil properties following the change to viticulture depend on individual vineyard management and environment. Relative changes can be used for comparisons within regions. Our research took place over three years on soils of vineyards of different ages and under different management, in both the Awatere and the Wairau Valleys in Marlborough, New Zealand. Soil properties investigated were: pH (optimal value 5.5-7.0); organic carbon (OC, 3-5%); carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N,10-20); bulk density (BD, 0.9-1.3 t/m3); macro-porosity (MP, 8-30%); microbial biomass (MB-C, g C/m2 in 15 cm of soil); basal respiration (BR-C, 1.5-4.5 g CO2-C/m2/day), respiration quotient (qCO2, 0.5-1.5 mg CO2-C/g MB-C) and kg carbon/m2 for 15 cm of soil (4.5-9.0 kg-C). Objective descriptions of vineyard soil quality would assist growers to apply and monitor sustainable vineyard management practices. This data set indicates changes in sustainability that can be expected after a change of land-use to grape growing.
Under average vineyard management, soil carbon declined rapidly during the first few years but reached a plateau after two or more years. Soil depth was shown to be influential, with soils below 15 cm much less affected by land use changes, but scoring lower for all soil carbon parameters (except for qCO2). Soils at this depth also scored lower for soil physical properties; they generally had a very high BD, low MP and low pH. These trends for the 15-30 cm layer are typical soil properties – they don’t imply that soil depth is a factor in sustainability indices per se.
The high variability and generally reduced levels of under-vine soil carbon compared with headland soil carbon, suggest the need to increase vineyard soil carbon content and thereby potentially sequestrate carbon.

DOI:

Publication date: December 3, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2010

Type: Article

Authors

Marc Greven (1), Victoria Raw (1), Colin Gray (2), Markus Deurer (3), Bruce West (1), Claire Grose (1)

(1) The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Marlborough, PO Box 845, Blenheim 7240,
New Zealand
(2) Marlborough District Council, 15 Seymour Street, Blenheim 7201, New Zealand
(3) The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Private Bag 11600, Palmerston North 4442,
New Zealand

Contact the author

Keywords

vineyard, grape, soil biophysical properties, organic carbon, microbial biomass, basal respiration, macro-porosity

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2010

Citation

Related articles…

Approche méthodologique concernant une caractérisation sensorielle de vins rouges de l’Anjou

Face à une concurrence de plus en plus rude entre pays producteurs, le vignoble de l’Anjou, déjà riche par sa diversité, souhaite renforcer sa logique de vins d’ A.O.C., notamment au travers de ses vins rouges.

«Nektar» -the new red variety wine grape aromatic high quality

The multi-annual study of the International Genetic Bank of the Grape Vine has shown that red varieties are enough, but the red varieties that produce high-quality red wine are minimal.

Cold plasma at atmospheric pressure for eliminating Brettanomyces from oak wood

In the oenological industry, the maintenance and sanitation of oak barrels has become a fundamental task. The wood has a porous structure that facilitates the penetration not only of the wine, but of the microorganisms it contains, such as the alterative yeast Brettanomyces bruxellensis.

Use of multispectral satellite for monitoring vine water status in mediterranean areas

The development of new generations of multispectral satellites such as Sentinel-2 opens possibilities as to vine water status assessment (Cohen et al., 2019). Based on a three years field campaign, a model of Stem Water Potential (SWP) estimation on vine using four satellite bands in Red, Red-Edge, NIR and SWIR domains was developed (Laroche-Pinel et al., 2021). The model relies on SWP field measures done using a pressure chamber (Scholander et al., 1965), which is a common, robust and precise method to assess vine water status (Acevedo-Opazo et al., 2008). The model was mainly developed from from SWP measures on Syrah N (Laroche Pinel E., 2021).

A large scale monitoring was organized in different vineyards in the Mediterranean region in 2021. 10 varieties amongst the most represented in this area were monitored (Cabernet sauvignon N, Chardonnay B, Cinsault N, Grenache N, Merlot N, Mourvèdre N, Sauvignon B, Syrah N, Vermentino B, Viognier B). The model was used to produce water status maps from Sentinel-2 images, starting from the beginning of June (fruit set) up to September (harvest). The average estimated SWP for each vine was compared to actual field SWP measures done by wine growers or technicians during usual monitoring of irrigation programs. The correlations between mean estimated SWP and mean measured SWP were at the same level than expected by the model. (Laroche Pinel, 2021) The general SWP kinetics were comparable. The estimated SWP would have led to same irrigation decisions concerning the date of first irrigation in comparison with measured SWP.

Acevedo-Opazo, C., Tisseyre, B., Ojeda, H., Ortega-Farias, S., Guillaume, S. (2008). Is it possible to assess the spatial variability of vine water status? OENO One, 42(4), 203.
Cohen, Y., Gogumalla, P., Bahat, I., Netzer, Y., Ben-Gal, A., Lenski, I., … Helman, D. (2019). Can time series of multispectral satellite images be used to estimate stem water potential in vineyards? In Precision agriculture ’19, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, pp. 445–451.
Laroche-Pinel, E., Duthoit, S., Albughdadi, M., Costard, A. D., Rousseau, J., Chéret, V., & Clenet, H. (2021). Towards vine water status monitoring on a large scale using sentinel-2 images. remote sensing, 13(9), 1837.
Laroche-Pinel,E. (2021). Suivi du statut hydrique de la vigne par télédétection hyper et multispectrale. Thèse INP Toulouse, France.
Scholander, P.F., Bradstreet, E.D., Hemmingsen, E.A., & Hammel, H.T. (1965). Sap pressure in vascular plants: Negative hydrostatic pressure can be measured in plants. Science, 148(3668), 339–346.

A viticultural perspective of Meso-scale atmospheric modelling in the Stellenbosch wine growing area, South Africa

La brise de mer et les facteurs climatiques qu’elle entraîne (accélération de la vitesse du vent au cours de l’après midi, augmentation de l’humidité et baisse de la temperature) sont d’un intérêt particulier pour la viticulture.