Keywords :

Adaptive management strategies for soil maintenance in viticulture

Grass cover—sown or natural—in vineyards maintains the soil while also providing different services concerning viticultural production and its environmental impact. However, three problems hamper its adoption in Mediterranean regions: having two coexisting plant covers under limited water and nitrogen resource conditions, determining a management method that is sustainably efficient despite high interannual rainfall variability, and making a choice amongst a broad range of possible technical options.

Soil maintenance strategies should therefore be designed that are efficient, year after year, with respect to production and environmental impact. The selected method is based on simulation of decision-making and biophysical processes involved, and also on a multicriteria frequency performance analysis. It is also possible to work on tactical or strategic adjustments required to tailor the type and schedule of technical operations to the state of the environment and/or the vine crops. The multicriteria analysis combines indicators associated with vine production performance (vegetative development, produce yield and quality) and the environmental impact of soil maintenance operations (runoff). This analysis revealed that the cropping system performance is dependent on adaptive soil maintenance management (and also likely management of other cropping system constituents) to buffer the effects of interannual rainfall variations. This management is complicated by the perennial nature of vines since any environmental variation can lead to both immediate and delayed responses.

Indicators of the soil system status, i.e. crops and guidelines for adjusting cropping calendars and technical operation conditions, must be tested before the strategy can be disseminated.