Functional Biodiversity in the Vineyard
The International Organisation of the Vine and Wine (OIV) has released a new document that presents an overview about functional biodiversity in vineyards and try to illustrate major aspects of functional biodiversity in the viticultural sector such as:
•Why enhancement of biodiversity and on what extent is beneficial for the vineyard?
•Identify and illustrate:
different ecological infrastructures existing in the vineyards;
major mechanisms of interactions between species or group of species;
and how these interactions can be used for the benefit of the vineyard.
In the introduction we can read: "For centuries traditional viticulture was part of a multifunctional agricultural system including low-input grasslands and fruit trees resulting in high functional biodiversity (FB). However, in the last decades the vineyard has suffered an intensive management leaded by a high mechanisation (including frequent tilling) and/or use of Plant Protection Products (PPP) in which several ecosystem services are been affected, causing high rates of soil erosion, degradation of soil structure and fertility, contamination of groundwater and high levels of agricultural inputs (Zaller et al., 2015). Therefore, there is general agreement that agricultural intensification has a deep impact on biodiversity with possible cascade effects on ecosystem functions and service delivery (Trivellone et al., 2014)".
You can read the entire document here: Functional Biodiversity in the Vineyard
