Management Concept for central European Ecosystems: Promoting ecosystem services in grapes
Abstract
The overall goal of the proposed project is to develop a concept for the management of Central European vineyards and their surrounding landscapes in order to enhance biodiversity providing those ecosystem services which have the potential to improve vineyard health and economic value. We will use a standardized set of observational and experimental studies across a wide range of Central-European (non-Mediterranean) vineyard systems in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Romania in order to unravel relationships between factors promoting biodiversity focusing especially on soil biodiversity (plants, biological activity and mesofauna) and functioning and the relevant supporting, provisioning and regulating ecosystem services required such as soil fertility, structural stability, water provision as well as pest and weed control. Three scales will be considered, a) the vineyard production area with its zones not directly used for cultivation such as alleyways, b) the vineyard surrounding area with its ecological infrastructures, and c) the surrounding landscape with its landscape elements. The observational studies will be carried out at a considerable number of vineyard locations in each participating country including a set of plots covering landscape diversity, sampling of soil properties, soil biological activity, plants and mesofauna as well as management factors such as tillage, herbicide weeding, mowing and slashing and fertilization on the plot scale. Additionally, type, density and patterns of ecological infrastructures such as hedges, ditches and other semi-natural habitats within and around the vineyard systems as well as relevant landscape parameters representing landscape complexity and connectivity will be considered.
keywords Biodiversity Viticulture Ecosystem Ecosystem services landscape
Publikationen
Project staff
Astrid Forneck
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing.sc.agr. Dr.sc.agr. Astrid Forneck
astrid.forneck@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-95811
BOKU Project Leader
01.02.2015 - 31.12.2018
BOKU partners
External partners
Ovidius University of Constanta
Marius Skolka
partner
Hochschule Geisenheim University
Ilona Leyer
coordinator
Bordeaux Sciences Agro, University of Bordeaux
Maarten van Helden
partner
University Fribourg
Sven Bacher
partner