Assessing Ecosystem Services and Multifunctionality for Vineyard Systems

Abstract

Vineyards shape important economic, cultural, and ecological systems in many temperate biomes. Like other agricultural systems, they can be multifunctional landscapes that not only produce grapes, but also for example serve as wildlife habitat, sequester carbon, and are places of rich traditions. However, research and management practices often focus mostly on individual, specific ecosystem services, without considering multifunctionality. Therefore, we set out to meet four research objectives: (1) evaluate how frequently the ecosystem services approach has been applied in vineyard systems; (2) identify which individual ecosystem services have been most frequently studied in vineyard systems, (3) summarize knowledge on the key ecosystem services identified in (2), and (4) illustrate approaches to multifunctionality in vineyards to inform more holistic land management. For research objective (1), we identified 45 publications that used the term "ecosystem services" in relation to vineyards, but found that only seven fully apply the ecosystem service concept to their research. For research objective (2), we operationalized the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) for 27 ecosystem services in vineyards, in order to consider provisioning, regulating, and cultural services through an analysis of more than 4,000 scientific papers that mentioned individual services. We found the six most frequently studied ecosystem services included (1) cultivated crops, (2) filtration, sequestration, storage and accumulation by the vineyards, (3) pest control and (4) disease control, (5) heritage, cultural and (6) scientific services. For research objective (3), we found that research on these six single ecosystem services is highly developed, but relationships between single ecosystem services are less studied. Therefore, we suggest that greater adoption of the ecosystem services approach could help scientists and practitioners to acknowledge the multifunctionality of the agricultural system and gain a holistic perspective that supports more sustainable land management.

Effects of vegetation management intensity on biodiversity and ecosystem services in vineyards: A meta‐analysis

“…Björklund, Limburg, & Rydberg, 1999). In addition, only few studies cover different ES and their multifunctionality in vineyard systems (Winkler, Viers, & Nicholas, 2017).…”

“…Most winegrowers control ground vegetation by means of tilling, mulching or herbicide applications. Intensive tillage has been shown to decrease plant and animal species diversity for some taxa (Kazakou et al, 2016;Paoletti et al, 1998) Besides direct effects on species, vineyard management also affects the provision of certain ES such as grape production, pest control or the prevention of soil erosion (Winkler et al, 2017). Intensive soil tillage and herbicide application trigger soil erosion, which is a threat to biodiversity (Montanarella, 2005) and ES provision (Novara, Gristina, Guaitoli, Santoro, & Cerdà, 2013).…”

Influences of blackberry margins on population dynamics of Drosophila suzukii and grape infestation in adjacent vineyards

“…The ongoing agricultural intensification leads to a steady destruction of semi‐natural habitats such as field margins and consequently to a loss of the wide spectrum of ecosystem services these multifunctional landscapes provide (Hallmann et al, ; Mania, Isocrono, Pedullà, & Guidoni, ; Winkler, Viers, & Nicholas, ). The structure of non‐crop field margins can be quite diverse, depending, for example, on the vegetation height and the plant communities growing there.…”

“…As a consequence, pesticide use can be reduced and biodiversity in agroecosystems may increase (Mania et al, ; Nicholls, Parrella, & Altieri, ; Veres, Petit, Conord, & Lavigne, ). Moreover, especially in viticulture, the surrounding vegetation contributes significantly to an aesthetic and more natural landscape, which is important for tourism in these areas (Assandri, Bogliani, Pedrini, & Brambilla, ; Winkler et al, ). However, surrounding non‐crop field margins sometimes serve as a refuge for pest organisms invading adjacent crop fields (Blitzer et al, ; Tscharntke et al, ).…”

Ecosystem services in vineyard landscapes: a focus on aboveground carbon storage and accumulation

“…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 (e.g., organic, conventional) to give greater context to these findings. Together, such studies will improve our understanding of how geography, environment and management can be harnessed to advance the much-needed goal of expanding the carbon mitigation potential of agricultural landscapes [ 20 , 21 ] and augment the generation of ecosystem services [ 22 ].…”