Effect of Organic Amendment Addition on Soil Properties, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Grape Yield in Semi-Arid Vineyard Agroecosystems

Antonio Marín-Martínez,Concepción Paredes,Mª Angeles Bustamante,Alberto Sanz-Cobeña,Enrique Agulló

doi:10.3390/agronomy11081477

Antonio Marín-Martínez, Concepción Paredes + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081477

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Abstract

In semi-arid vineyard agroecosystems, highly vulnerable in the context of climate change, the soil organic matter (OM) content is crucial to the improvement of soil fertility and grape productivity. The impact of OM, from compost and animal manure, on soil properties (e.g., pH, oxidisable organic C, organic N, NH4+-N and NO3−-N), grape yield and direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in vineyards was assessed. For this purpose, two wine grape varieties were chosen and managed differently: with a rain-fed non-trellising vineyard of Monastrell, a drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Monastrell and a drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon. The studied fertiliser treatments were without organic amendments (C), sheep/goat manure (SGM) and distillery organic waste compost (DC). The SGM and DC treatments were applied at a rate of 4600 kg ha−1 (fresh weight, FW) and 5000 kg ha−1 FW, respectively. The use of organic amendments improved soil fertility and grape yield, especially in the drip-irrigated trellising vineyards. Increased CO2 emissions were coincident with higher grape yields and manure application (maximum CO2 emissions = 1518 mg C-CO2 m−2 d−1). In contrast, N2O emissions, mainly produced through nitrification, were decreased in the plots showing higher grape production (minimum N2O emissions = −0.090 mg N2O-N m−2 d−1). In all plots, the CH4 fluxes were negative during most of the experiment (−1.073−0.403 mg CH4-C m−2 d−1), indicating that these ecosystems can represent a significant sink for atmospheric CH4. According to our results, the optimal vineyard management, considering soil properties, yield and GHG mitigation together, was the use of compost in a drip-irrigated trellising vineyard with the grape variety Monastrell.

Highlights

Vineyard soils covered a total area of 7.5 Mha worldwide in 2016
The most common soil management techniques in Mediterranean vineyards consist of tillage for mechanical weeding, which keeps the soil between the vines uncovered throughout the year
Based on the above-mentioned considerations, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the organic fertiliser type on the soil C and N mineralisation dynamics, grape yield and direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Mediterranean wine grape vineyards managed with different practices—in terms of the training system, irrigation, N fertiliser and grape variety—over one full growing season

Summary

Introduction

Vineyard soils covered a total area of 7.5 Mha worldwide in 2016. In that year, Spain was the country with the greatest extension of vineyards (975,270 ha) and had a wine production of around 40 × 106 hL [1]. Most of the Spanish vineyards are concentrated in the Mediterranean basin, highly vulnerable in the context of climate change [2], with viticulture being a significant economic sector (the wine production generated an income of €4.8 billion in 2016) [3] and part of the socio-cultural heritage in this zone. The most common soil management techniques in Mediterranean vineyards consist of tillage for mechanical weeding, which keeps the soil between the vines uncovered throughout the year. This practice is intended to avoid competition for water between weeds and grapevines [5] and it contributes to the modification of soil physical and biological properties and to the decrease in the soil organic matter (SOM) content [6]

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