Abstract
To examine the effects of vineyard soil management on soil C and N content and quality, we studied harrowed and grass-covered vineyards on a soil developed on plio-pleistocene, marine sediments. A soil naturally covered by grasses adjacent to the vineyards served as control. To reach this goal, we assessed (1) the distribution of C and N and their 13C and 15N signatures in different soil organic matter pools, (2) the amount of C and N as live and dead vine fine roots and their 13C, 15N and 14C signatures, and (3) the stocks of C and N forms accumulated at two soil-depth intervals (0–50 and 50–100cm).Independent of the soil management, the vines increased the total organic C and total N content in the deeper soil horizons because of root turnover and rhizodeposition processes. In the upper horizons, a greater organic matter accumulation was fostered by the presence of the grass cover and the absence of tillage. The grass cover favoured the organic C storage mainly in the form of particulate and highly stabilised organic matter (humic acids and humin), and reduced the soil N content by plant uptake, whereas the harrowing produced a greater abundance of fulvic acids, which were mainly ascribed to oxidative processes enhanced by the soil tillage. In both vineyard soils, decaying vine roots represented an important source of organic C and N, especially in the deepest horizons. Indeed, isotope analyses revealed a more intense degradation of the dead vine roots in the deeper soil portion, where they likely constituted the main substrate for soil microorganisms. In the deepest horizons of the grass-covered vineyard, the greater mean residence time of the decaying vine roots and the lower root production were attributed to the easily available energetic substrates supplied by grass root turnover and rhizodeposition, which were preferentially used by microorganisms. This fact fostered a larger C accumulation in the grass-covered than in the harrowed vineyard.
Highlights
Soil properties are directly linked up to soil organic matter (SOM) content and quality, which are controlled by climate, vegetation, soil type and management (e.g., Guo and Gifford, 2002; Seddaiu et al, 2013)
The total organic C (TOC) concentration decreased with depth (P < 0.0001) in the control (CTR) and the harrowed vineyard soil (HV), while the grass-covered vineyard soil (GCV) showed an increase below the BC1 horizon (Fig. 2)
An estimation of TOC stored in the 50–100 cm soil layer during 10 years of vine cultivation amounted to 3–3.5 kg m−2 (Table 6), a quantity compatible with the calculated production of fine vine roots in the BC horizons: about 2.5 and 1.5 kg m−2 year−1 for HV and GCV, respectively (Table 5)
Summary
Soil properties are directly linked up to soil organic matter (SOM) content and quality, which are controlled by climate, vegetation, soil type and management (e.g., Guo and Gifford, 2002; Seddaiu et al, 2013). In agro-ecosystems, practices such as crop choice, tillage and machinery, organic inputs, fertilisers and xenobiotics usage affect the content and the characteristics of SOM (Campbell et al, 1999; Lal, 2004). The transition from traditional farming to intensive agriculture, coupled with the use of large amounts of chemical fertilizers, has led to a loss of SOM from cultivated soils (Miller et al, 2004). The growing interest in the sustainable use of soil, environmental quality and long-term productivity of agro-ecosystems (UNFCCC, 2008) has led to increasing use of agricultural practices that favour the conservation or increase of SOM (Paustian et al, 1997; Lal, 2004). While there are numerous studies dealing with the influence of agricultural practices on the content and dynamics of SOM in annual cropping systems (e.g., Doran, 2002; Tilman et al, 2002), little is known for perennial cropping systems (Carlisle et al, 2006), which can be defined as the cultivations that last for more than two
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