Abstract
BackgroundOrganic viticulture can generate a range of ecosystem services including supporting biodiversity, reducing the use of conventional pesticides and fertilizers, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through long-term carbon (C) storage. Here we focused on aboveground C storage rates and accumulation using a one-year increment analysis applied across different winegrape varietals and different-aged vineyard blocks. This produced a chronosequence of C storage rates over what is roughly the productive lifespan of most vines (aged 2–30 years). To our knowledge, this study provides the first estimate of C storage rates in the woody biomass of vines. Additionally, we assessed C storage in wildland buffers and adjacent oak-dominated habitats over a 9-year period.ResultsCarbon storage averaged 6.5 Mg/Ha in vines. We found the average annual increase in woody C storage was 43% by mass. Variation correlated most strongly with vine age, where the younger the vine, the greater the relative increase in annual C. Decreases in C increment rates with vine age were more than offset by the greater overall biomass of older vines, such that C on the landscape continued to increase over the life of the vines at 18.5% per year on average. Varietal did not significantly affect storage rates or total C stored. Carbon storage averaged 81.7 Mg/Ha in native perennial buffer vegetation; we found an 11% increase in mass over 9 years for oak woodlands and savannas.ConclusionsDespite a decrease in the annual rate of C accumulation as vines age, we found a net increase in aboveground C in the woody biomass of vines. The results indicate the positive role that older vines play in on-farm (vineyard) C and overall aboveground accumulation rates. Additionally, we found that the conservation of native perennial vegetation as vineyard buffers and edge habitats contributes substantially to overall C stores. We recommend that future research consider longer time horizons for increment analysis, as this should improve the precision of C accumulation rate estimates, including in belowground (i.e., soil) reservoirs.
Highlights
Organic viticulture can generate a range of ecosystem services including supporting biodiversity, reducing the use of conventional pesticides and fertilizers, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through longterm carbon (C) storage
We present results from a northern California organic vineyard with hopes that similar studies emerge in other vineyard and perennial woody crop landscapes across a range of management types to give greater context to these findings
Site description Vineyard lands sampled in this study are located in the Russian River watershed near the town of Hopland (38°58′23′′N 123°06′59′′W) in Mendocino County, California
Summary
Organic viticulture can generate a range of ecosystem services including supporting biodiversity, reducing the use of conventional pesticides and fertilizers, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through longterm carbon (C) storage. We focused on aboveground C storage rates and accumulation using a one-year increment analysis applied across different winegrape varietals and different-aged vineyard blocks. With the multi-decade, and even multi-century, longevity of grapevines and reported positive correlations between vine age, productivity and quality for at least some varietals [15,16,17], there is practical value in being able to accurately estimate carbon storage rates in long-term reservoirs, such as the woody biomass of vines and vineyard soils. Vineyards—especially those in established wine growing regions—may represent long-term, multi-generational stable land use types where carbon accumulates to significant levels (i.e., comparable to or greater than the amount in vine blocks) in the surrounding non-vine vegetation and soils for decades or centuries [18]. No study has yet estimated carbon storage rates in vines based on direct growth increment measurements, nor have researchers explicitly examined how carbon storage varies according to vine age and varietal
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