Search Results (74)

Interrow management in vineyards significantly contributes to sustainable viticulture, particularly in water-scarce European regions. Grassy and herbaceous cover crops have been proven to enhance multiple regulating ecosystem services, including soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and improved water infiltration. However, the potential for water competition with vines necessitates region-specific approaches. This review aims to analyze the effects of different cover crop types and interrow tillage methods on water management and regulating ecosystem services, focusing on main European vineyard areas. The research involved a two-stage literature review by Google Scholar and Scopus, resulting in the identification of 67 relevant scientific publications, with 11 offering experimental data from European contexts. Selected studies were evaluated based on climate conditions, soil properties, slope characteristics, and interrow treatments. Findings highlight that the appropriate selection of cover crop species, sowing and mowing timing, and mulching practices can optimize vineyard resilience under climate stress. Practical recommendations are offered to help winegrowers adopt cost-effective and environmentally adaptive strategies, especially on sloped or shallow soils, where partial cover cropping is often the most beneficial for both yield and ecological balance. Cover crops and mulching reduce erosion, enhance vineyard soil moisture, relieve water stress consequences, and, as a result, these cover cropping techniques can improve yield and nutritional values of grapes (e.g., Brix, pH, K concentration), but effects vary; careful, site-specific, long-term management is essential for best results. Full article

Soil compaction from mechanized agriculture is a major concern, as frequent machinery use degrades soil structure, reduces porosity, and ultimately impairs crop productivity. Among potential mitigation strategies to enhance soil resilience to machinery-induced compaction, biochar has shown promise in laboratory settings but remains untested under real field conditions. To address this, we monitored soil in a Tuscan vineyard where biochar was applied at 16 and 32 Mg ha⁻¹, compared to control, on both flat and sloped plots. Soil compaction was induced by 20 passes of a wheeled orchard tractor. Soil bulk density (BD) was measured before, immediately after, and one year following the initial passes, during which 19 additional machine passes occurred as part of the vineyard’s routine agronomic management. Initial results showed a significant BD increase (up to 12.8%) across all treatments, though biochar significantly limited soil compaction, regardless of the applied dose. After one year, in which the soil underwent further compaction, BD further increased across all treatments (up to 20.2%), with the steepest increase observed on the sloped terrain. At this stage, the mitigating effect of biochar on soil compaction was no longer evident. Our findings suggest that biochar may offer some short-term relief from compaction, but further investigations are needed to clarify its long-term effectiveness under field conditions. Full article

The application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in viticulture is becoming increasingly popular. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies comparing the effects of UAV spraying to manual spraying in high-slope vineyards. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of UAV spraying on droplet average diameter, droplet area percentage, and droplet density for vines grown using vertical shoot positioning (VSP) and Y-shaped trellis systems and to compare them with the effects of manual spraying via an electric knapsack sprayer. The results showed that manual spraying led to the greatest area of droplets for the VSP trellis system, and the uniformity and penetration of droplets with the UAV spraying method were higher than those for manual spraying for this trellis system. Regarding the Y-shaped trellis system, the UAV spraying method yielded lower droplet diameters, higher droplet density, and better uniformity and penetration than manual spraying. Moreover, conducting UAV spraying twice showed no statistical differences in droplet area percentage compared to manual spraying, and the effect of UAV spraying even once was similar to that of manual spraying on the abaxial sides of the leaves in this respect. Our research indicates that UAV spraying was not very suitable for VSP trellis systems, but it could be a good alternative for Y-shaped trellis systems since it is safe and cost-effective by reducing labor, time, and the dosages of the solutions applied. Full article

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in agriculture is a critical concern worldwide, with self-propelled machinery accidents, particularly tip/roll-overs, being a leading cause of injuries and fatalities. In such a context, while great attention has been paid to machinery safety improvement, a major challenge is the lack of studies addressing the analysis of the work environment to provide farmers with precise information on field slope steepness. This information, merged with an awareness of machinery performance, such as tilt angles, can facilitate farmers in making decisions about machinery operations in hilly and mountainous areas. To address this gap, the Italian Compensation Authority (INAIL) launched a research programme to integrate georeferenced slope data with the tilt angle specifications of common self-propelled machinery, following EN ISO 16231-2:2015 standards. This study presents the first results of this research project, which was focused on vineyards in the alpine region of the Autonomous Province of Trento, where terrestrial LiDAR technology was used to analyze slope steepness. The findings aim to provide practical guidelines for safer machinery operation, benefiting farmers, risk assessors, and manufacturers. By enhancing awareness of tip/roll-over risks and promoting informed decision-making, this research aims to contribute to improving OHS in agriculture, particularly in challenging terrains. Full article

Vineyards are distinctive agroecosystems heavily influenced by local natural factors and traditional management practices, with significant implications for the quality and quantity of grape production. This study investigated the ecological impact of copper-containing fungicides on the accumulation and distribution of copper, manganese, chromium, and cobalt in the upper soil horizons of vineyards of varying ages in the Fruška Gora region, Serbia. The results indicated a marked difference in total copper content across vineyards, with the oldest vineyard exhibiting levels 6.9 times above the regulatory limit. Factor analysis delineated a strong correlation between copper accumulation and vineyard age while also highlighting the influence of landscape morphology on the spatial distribution of heavy metals. The findings suggest that copper accumulation is primarily related to agricultural practices, particularly the duration of fungicide application, while the distribution of other heavy metals is more closely associated with topographic features. The novelty of our research lies in the fact that we have shown that the assessment of copper accumulation in soil in vineyard ecosystems should take into account not only viticultural practices but also the history of land use and the landscape characteristics of the area. Full article

The small Mediterranean islands, unique geographical places where coastlines and mountains converge due to volcanic genesis, are among the most threatened environments on Earth. Their marginality, which has historically led to their use as places of detention and punishment, coupled with the extreme climate and rugged geomorphology shaped by terracing practices, has resulted in the loss of systematic land management. This loss stems from the abandonment of cropland in favor of alternative activities and migrations, impacting essential ecosystem services such as the water cycle, soil fertility, and the cultural landscape. The need to counteract the land degradation in these vulnerable areas has been acknowledged for some Mediterranean small islands, including the UNESCO heritage site of Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands, Sicily, Italy—an especially captivating location due to its active volcano. The agricultural abandonment on terraces, intensively cultivated with olives groves and vineyards until the mid-20th century, has rendered the area highly fragile and susceptible to risks such as fires and soil erosion, particularly as a consequence of extreme weather events, as proven in 2022, which saw a destructive fire followed by storms. To mitigate the negative effects of hydrogeological disruptions, the implementation of integrated landscape management—managing ecosystems at the landscape level—has been proposed. Specifically, an agroforestry intervention, coupled with the restoration of dry stone walls, the shaping of soil slopes by recovering the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and the design of water-collecting devices incorporated with the traditional hydraulic knowledge, may be proposed as a strategic approach to minimize the soil erosion risks, adapt to climate change, and extensively restore the use of traditional agrobiodiversity to support the local economy and tourism. A pilot intervention by local stakeholders based on these principles is described as an emblematic agrobiodiversity-based landscape design project in a vulnerable area, aiming at the preservation of the cultural landscapes of the small Mediterranean islands. Full article

Sentinel-2 (S2) is widely considered a reliable satellite constellation for monitoring several crops, such as grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.). A large dataset of Italian vineyards randomly chosen was monitored with S2 from 2017 to 2022. Two vegetation indices (VIs) and their statistics were calculated from each vineyard. In addition, structural features and topographic information were assessed using Google Earth and national databases. The research study aims to identify the most relevant drivers of spatial variability by assessing the VIs among the whole dataset and the within-vineyard variability. The latitude and the vintage showed the most relevant effect on spatial variability, depicting the effect of daylight hours, climate conditions and weather events. However, the vintage did not affect the patterns of the within-field variability. Regarding grapevine management, training systems and the rows’ orientation were relevant boosters of variability. While the vineyards planted with north–south-oriented rows reached the highest VIs values, the east–west-oriented ones showed the highest variability. Finally, an interaction effect was detected between hill or plain plantation and the terrain slope on both the average and variability of the VIs. The conclusions from the present study suggest the relevance of clustering vineyards under remote supervision according to the structural features to reduce data variability. Further studies should investigate other structural features or managerial properties. Full article

Soil erosion in coastal areas, driven by global change and human activity, poses a significant threat to ecological and economic stability. This research investigates water erosion in the southeast of the Ría de Arosa (Pontevedra, Spain), utilizing the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation model and Geographic Information System technologies. Key factors analyzed include rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, topography, land cover, and conservation practices. High-resolution maps (1 × 1 m pixels) identified areas at high risk of erosion. Vulnerable zones, such as coastal cliffs and vineyards, show severe erosion rates exceeding 50 t/ha/year (>5 mm/year), with the most extreme zones reaching up to 200 t/ha/year (>200 mm/year). These results emphasize that intervention could be required or recommended. Suggested measures include reforestation, effective agricultural land management, or the implementation of vegetative barriers to reduce erosion. These areas, characterized by steep slopes and sparse vegetation, are particularly susceptible to soil loss, necessitating specific conservation efforts. The results underscore the need for sustainable coastal management practices and preventive strategies to protect this vulnerable coastal zone. Implementing these measures is crucial to mitigating the impacts of soil erosion, preserving natural resources, and ensuring long-term ecological and economic resilience in the region. Full article

Understanding microclimate spatial variability is crucial for sustainable and optimised grape production within vineyard plots. By employing a combination of a microclimate model (NicheMapR) and multiple climate data sources, this study aimed to achieve microclimatic analysis in two vineyard plots, Quinta do Bomfim (northern Portugal) and Herdade do Esporão (southern Portugal). This approach provides an innovative 10 m spatial resolution for climate variables. This study incorporated local station hourly data with quantile mapping bias correction on the ERA5-land data. The microclimate model output was employed to perform bias correction on a EURO-CORDEX model ensemble. Climate extreme and bioclimatic indices specifically targeted to viticulture were calculated for each vineyard plot. The 10 m scale was analysed to identify potential shifts in temperature extremes, precipitation patterns, and other crucial climatic variables for grape cultivation within each specific plot. The significance of microclimate analyses was higher in areas with intricate topography, while in areas with smooth slopes, the variation of climatic variables was determined to be negligible. There was a projected increase in the median temperature of approximately 3.5 °C and 3.6 °C and a decrease in precipitation of approximately 98 mm and 105 mm in Quinta do Bomfim and Herdade do Esporão, respectively, when comparing a future scenario for the period 2071–2100 against the historical period (1981–2010). Hence, this study offers a comprehensive and future-oriented method for analysing microclimates in vineyard plots. By incorporating geospatial data, ERA5-land data, and the microclimate NicheMapR model, this research aimed to enhance the understanding of current microclimates and future climate scenarios for viticulturists. Full article

In times of global insect decline, agricultural ecosystems need to be designed in an as insect-friendly manner as possible to halt the progressive loss of biodiversity. This is particularly important for steep-slope viticulture being established on sites with high biodiversity potential. Therefore, we compared different vineyard types (cross-slope with greened embankments vs. down-slope or other types without greened embankments), using wild bees and butterflies as indicators for biodiversity in the lower Moselle region (SW Germany). The numbers of species and individuals in both groups were significantly higher in cross-slope vineyards with greened embankments. This also held true for the number of specialised and endangered species. The communities of wild bees and butterflies differed remarkably between the vineyard types. Three wild bee and five butterfly species were identified as indicator species and hence can be used as such for further monitoring. Our results underline that the structure of steep-slope vineyards has tremendous importance for biodiversity conservation. Since the cultivation of cross-slope vineyards on steep slopes is easier than that of down-slope vineyards, we assume the great synergistic potential to reconcile agricultural use and biodiversity conservation and, in addition, to preserve steep-slope viticulture as a structural element in landscape planning. Full article

The traditional method for determining wine grape total soluble solid (TSS) is destructive laboratory analysis, which is time consuming and expensive. In this study, we explore the potential of using different predictor variables from various advanced techniques to predict the grape TSS in a non-destructive and rapid way. Calculating Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the vegetation indices (VIs) obtained from UAV multispectral imagery and grape TSS resulted in a strong correlation between OSAVI and grape TSS with a coefficient of 0.64. Additionally, seven machine learning models including ridge regression and lasso regression, k-Nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector regression (SVR), random forest regression (RFR), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and artificial neural network (ANN) are used to build the prediction models. The predictor variables include the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) derived VIs, and other ancillary variables including normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI_proximal) and soil electrical conductivity (EC_a) measured by proximal sensors, elevation, slope, trunk circumference, and day of the year for each sampling date. When using 23 VIs and other ancillary variables as input variables, the results show that ensemble learning models (RFR, and XGBoost) outperform other regression models when predicting grape TSS, with the average of root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.19 and 1.2 °Brix, and coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.52 and 0.52, respectively, during the 20 times testing process. In addition, this study examines the prediction performance of using optimized soil adjusted vegetation index (OSAVI) or normalized green-blue difference index (NGBDI) as the main input for different machine learning models with other ancillary variables. When using OSAVI-based models, the best prediction model is RFR with an average R² of 0.51 and RMSE of 1.19 °Brix, respectively. For NGBDI-based model, the RFR model showed the best average result of predicting TSS were a R² of 0.54 and a RMSE of 1.16 °Brix, respectively. The approach proposed in this study provides an opportunity to grape growers to estimate the whole vineyard grape TSS in a non-destructive way. Full article

Soil erosion in European Mediterranean vineyards is the main impact factor of uncontrolled solute and nutrient transport, degradation of soil structure, and loss of organic matter, which are key controlling factors in grape productivity and quality. The relationship between soil loss and grape productivity in the Aglianico DOC and DOCG areas of Southern Italy has been studied. Erosion values estimated through the RUSLE model were compared with grape productivity from 2011 to 2019. The obtained results show a negative correlation between the two parameters. The amounts of soil loss for different vineyard slope classes were also considered. The erosion values increase by an order of magnitude moving from the gentle slopes (0–5°) to the steeper ones (>30°), typical of hilly and mountainous areas. The planned shift in the future of vineyards towards these altitudinal bands could prove to be uneconomical if conservative techniques are not carried out. Full article

Rainfall-induced shallow landslides cause damage to human activities and infrastructureseach year, and although the size of a landslide correlates to the damage that it causes, very few studies have previously investigated the factors that influence the size of a shallow landslide. The aim of this work was to assess the role of precipitation and land use in controlling the size of the source area of rainfall-induced shallow landslides. After ruling out the impact of the slope angle and bedrock lithology in the two selected catchments, the role of land use was investigated: the statistical tests showed that woodlands and vineyards had statistically different source area size distributions, possibly due to the different hydrological behaviours between the two. A correlation was additionally found between the size of a source area and the amount of cumulated rainfall in the three days prior to each analysed event. In both cases, an increase in source area size was linked to an increase in pore pressure. This study aimed to fill the existing gap in the research to help implement policies aimed at reducing the size, and consequently the impact, of shallow landslides. Full article

Straw mulching is a sustainable practice used to control soil erosion. However, different doses of mulch affect the efficiency of straw conservation. This study presents detailed research on how soil physicochemical properties and the hydrological response react to different types of vineyard soil management (Tilled, Grass, Low Straw, High Straw) and seasons (spring, summer, autumn) under conventional management on Anthrosols in Mediterranean conditions. To assess soil properties, core samples and disturbed samples were taken from the topsoil layer (0–10 cm). To evaluate erosion rates, a rainfall simulation experiment was conducted (58 mm h⁻¹ for 30 min) with 10 replicates per treatment and season (120 in total). The results show higher water-stable aggregates (WSA) and soil organic matter (SOM) and lower bulk density (BD) in the mulch and grass treatment groups compared with the Tilled treatment group. High Straw treatment successfully mitigated runoff, while other treatments had significantly higher runoff that triggered sediment loss (SL) and translocation of P, K, Zn and Ni down the slope. There were 254% and 520% higher K losses with Tilled treatment in autumn compared with Low Straw and Grass treatments, respectively. Statistical analysis showed a strong association between element loss and SL, which indicates an ecological threat in degraded and endangered vineyards. Mulch application and grass cover reduce the vulnerability of vineyards, reduce evaporation, act as insulation against high temperatures, reduce erosion and suppress weed growth. The mulch dosage varies depending on the goals and conditions of the vineyard; thus, lower mulch dosage (2 t/ha) is appropriate when soil conditions are favourable and there is no significant need for moisture retention, while higher mulch dosage is necessary in dry regions to maintain soil moisture during high-temperature periods, as well as in sloped areas subjected to erosion. Full article

The aim of our study is to reconstruct the human influence on the current vegetation in selected parts of the cadastral territory of Svätý Jur. Svätý Jur is a town with more than 700 years of winemaking tradition, located on the oak-hornbeam-forested slopes of the Little Carpathians and surrounded by terraced vineyards. Human activity has changed the natural landscape of Svätý Jur since the Neolithic period. It is possible to trace the influence of past human activities on current vegetation by mapping vegetation onto historical landscape structures. For our research, we chose two study sites—Biely Kameň Castle and Hillfort Neštich. Our research has shown that there are significant differences in plant communities as well as in their environmental requirements between the investigated sites. Nitrophilous species indicative of human activities were recorded at both sites. At Hillfort Neštich, we recorded the occurrence of an interesting combination of species of Atropa, Phytolacca and Rubus. We have recorded their current occurrence and searched for its causes. In addition, we evaluate the current state of the vegetation of the castle and the hillfort in relation to the human past and today’s use. Full article