Soil biological and biochemical traits linked to nutritional status in grapevine

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to study vineyards of NE Italy seeking for features associated to the soil or plant compartment that could serve as proxies to infer productivity of the grape. Soils were characterized for physicochemical properties, mineralization of organic matter by a novel patented device based on in-situ microbial degradation of buried fibers, bacterial intergenic spacer length diversity (ARISA), enzyme activities and the expression of genes involved in response to abiotic stresses. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed among vineyards for the parameters evaluated. The groupings obtained by ARISA were coherent with those obtained by PCA of soil properties. Vineyards endowed with higher productivity had soils showing higher enzyme activities along with neutral pH, higher TOC content and appropriate C/N ratio. These soils also showed higher mineralization of organic matter determined the novel in-soil thread degradation method. Grapevines of less productive vineyards had suboptimal leaf nitrogen and sulfur contents and showed up-regulation of WRKY, SuSy, PAL and STS1 genes. Results put in evidence useful correlations with yield that can be obtained up to several months earlier than harvest time upon analyzing selected indicators. An interesting link arises unifying soil biological properties, nutritional status, molecular stress response of grapevine and its production level.

Short-term recovery of soil physical, chemical, micro- and mesobiological functions in a new vineyard under organic farming

“…Similar C/N values have been reported by other authors for tilled vineyards on sloping land, under different soil and climate conditions (Stevanato et al, 2014). Commonly, in the topsoil of arable land, the soil C/N ratio ranges from 10 to 12 and is always lower in the subsoil.…”

Differential vineyard fertilizer management based on nutrient,s spatio-temporal variability

“…Soil properties, together with climate, directly affect vine development, berry composition and wine quality potential (Stevanato et al, 2014). Considering that spatial variability is one of the major soil characteristics, variation in soil properties appears to be a key driver of vineyard yield and quality variability (Unamunzaga et al, 2014).…”

“…An integrated understanding of the complex defence mechanisms of grapevine to edaphic stresses could lead to actions targeted at enhancing natural nutrient cycling, reequilibrating the nutritional status of plants and reducing dependence on mineral fertilizers in vineyard systems (Stevanato et al, 2014). These adaptations in root morphology and root physiology are a major grapevine characteristic resulting from its deep root structure, which allows it to absorb water and nutrients from great depths (Shen et al, 2011;Balemi and Negisho, 2012), particularly important in the case of phosphorus because of the relative immobility of this nutrient in the soil (Balemi and Negisho, 2012).…”

Weed Seed Decay in No-Till Field and Planted Riparian Buffer Zone

“…Information about the soil properties can be found in Table 1. Soil physicochemical properties were analysed as previously described [42]. All results are expressed on an oven-dry basis.…”

“…Microbial activity of the soils was tested using Fertimetro, as described by [42,44,45]. The method consists of evaluating the degradation of cotton and silk threads buried in the soil for one week.…”