ABSTRACT. Global warming profoundly affects terrestrial ecosystems, through e.g., increased severity and duration of heatwave–drought compound events. Viticultural ecosystems are not spared, prompting the wine sector to both adapt to climate change and contribute to its mitigation. In the latter context, vineyards can play a key role by sequestering carbon through photosynthesis and soil organic matter storage. Therefore, understanding carbon flux dynamics at the vineyard scale is essential. The eddy-covariance (EC) method allows direct and continuous measurements of CO2 exchanges between the atmosphere and ecosystems, providing estimates of the Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE), defined as the balance between photosynthetic carbon uptake (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Reco). Despite the growing importance of such data, vineyards remain underrepresented in global flux networks, particularly in temperate regions. To address this gap, an EC flux tower was installed in June 2024 in a one-hectare Pinot Noir vineyard plot in Rully (Burgundy, France) to measure fluxes at 10 Hz. The site is fully instrumented to monitor both biotic and abiotic drivers, including radiation, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit and canopy development tracked through monthly leaf area index measurements and daily vegetation indices (Gcc and NDVI). The data validation protocol confirmed that more than 70% of the measured flux originated within the plot, with an energy balance closure ratio of 0.63, consistent with standard EC performance. Preliminary results show that the vineyard acts as a carbon sink from spring to autumn, with carbon uptake strongly correlated with solar radiation and canopy development. This first EC-based assessment in Burgundy provides key insights into vineyard carbon balance under temperate conditions and supports regional efforts toward carbon neutrality by 2035.

ABSTRACT. Stable isotopes of carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) provide valuable integrative indicators of grapevine water status (Gaudillère et al., 2002; van Leeuwen et al., 2023) and nitrogen metabolism (Santesteban et al., 2015, 2024). Here, we quantified δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N in three vineyards on Waiheke Island (New Zealand), with different topography, rootstocks, and management, to determine which grapevine component(s) most reliably reflect grapevine variation in δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N. For this, we analysed 54 samples, including leaves, seeds, skin, pulp, bulk juice, and whole berry, and tested: (a) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N isotopic differences among grapevine components: we found modest but significant differences for both δ¹³C (Pr(>F)=0.04) and δ¹⁵N (Pr(>F)=0.01). For δ¹³C, values showed low variability, with means ranging from –29.2 ‰ in seeds to –28.1 ‰ in bulk juice, likely reflecting the uniformly non-stressed water status of the sampled grapevines (δ¹³C < –26 ‰; van Leeuwen et al., 2023). δ¹⁵N differed significantly among components, with seeds enriched (2.88 ‰) relative to all other components (0.61–1.40 ‰). (b) δ¹³C–δ¹⁵N correlations among components: we found a significant correlation for bulk juice (r=0.71, p=0.03), showing that higher δ¹⁵N was associated with higher δ¹³C. (c) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N isotopic variability by vineyard: vineyard site had a highly significant effect on both δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N (Pr(>F)<0.01). While δ¹³C likely reflected topographic differences among vineyards, δ¹⁵N did not distinguish the vineyard managed under organic practices. (d) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N isotopic variability among grapevine components by vineyard: both site and component showed significant differences for δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N (Pr(>F)<0.01). Within vineyards, δ¹³C did not differ among components, indicating that it was mainly driven by whole-vine physiology. We found no site × component interaction for δ¹³C, while δ¹⁵N resulted in a marginal interaction (Pr(>F)=0.05), suggesting that the component differences in δ¹⁵N depend on vineyard-specific nitrogen dynamics. Overall, our results show that under no water stress, vineyard characteristics, rather than sampled grapevine component, drive most of the δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N isotopic variability. Among the sampled components, bulk juice appears as the best integrator of both isotopic signals.

ABSTRACT. Reducing synthetic fertilizer inputs without compromising yield remains a central challenge for viticulture under climatic and economic pressures. Biological nutrient management offers a promising alternative, yet the mechanisms linking soil microbial function with nutrient cycling and vine establishment are not fully resolved. These uncertainties are particularly important in newly planted vineyards established on contrasting land-use legacies, where inherited microbial communities, soil structure, and nutrient availability can influence early vine performance and shape the emergence of terroir expression. This study evaluates the efficacy of biological nutrient amendments, including mature compost and microbial extracts, in improving soil function and vine establishment relative to synthetic fertilizer across two former land uses, forest and forage, in a newly planted Pinot Noir block in the Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island, Canada.

Fieldwork was conducted from 2023 to 2025 in a commercial vineyard situated within a cool-summer Mediterranean climate characterized by glacial-fluvial soils moderated by marine conditions. The experimental layout consisted of eight rows of Pinot Noir (990 vines), with paired biological-treatment and fertilizer-control rows replicated across forest- and forage-derived soils. Soil properties were assessed biweekly throughout each growing season, including pH, carbon, compaction, aggregate stability, and microbial functional groups using shadowing microscopy. Litter decomposition was quantified using three-month incubations in spring and fall, and phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) profiling characterized microbial community structure and functional guilds. Vine performance was evaluated annually using pruning biomass.

Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) and structural equation modelling (SEM) resolved direct and mediated pathways linking microbial biomass and guilds, decomposition, soil physical condition, and vine biomass. Ordination analyses were used to visualize legacy- and treatment-driven differences in microbial community structure.

Biologically managed vines achieved comparable or higher vigor than synthetic-fertilizer controls, with the strongest responses occurring in the former forest soils. Biological treatments reduced compaction, increased aggregate stability, and elevated fungal biomass, particularly in legacy forest soils where fungi were already more abundant. Forage soils began with lower fungal biomass, organic matter and aggregation, and exhibited more gradual shifts. Decomposition rates and microbial activity were closely aligned with shifts in soil structure and nutrient availability, indicating that microbial networks mediate amendment effects through their influence on nutrient-cycling pathways. These findings demonstrate that biological nutrient management can accelerate early vine establishment, enhance soil functional resilience, and reinforce the ecological underpinnings of terroir in newly established vineyards across heterogeneous legacy soils.

ABSTRACT. In Mediterranean viticulture, sustainable soil management practices such as cover cropping and organic mulching are increasingly adopted to enhance biodiversity, improve soil structure, and strengthen grapevine resilience under rainfed conditions. However, their influence on grapevine-associated microbial communities remains only partially understood. This study evaluated the impact of two winter cover crop mixtures on soil and plant microbiomes in a rainfed vineyard: a cereal-based mixture (CM) and a balanced mixture (BM) including cereals, legumes, and brassicas. A traditional soil management with alternate inter-row tillage and spontaneous grass served as the control (C). Cover crops were terminated at full flowering in spring, and their residues were retained as under-vine dry mulch. Root and leaf samples collected at grapevine pre-flowering and veraison were used to characterize rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbial communities through high-throughput sequencing targeting bacterial (16S rRNA) and fungal (ITS) regions. At veraison, under-vine dry mulching maintained higher soil moisture and reduced soil temperature by about 2.5 °C compared to C. CM particularly improved vine physiological performance. These different soil conditions supported higher microbial richness in the rhizosphere and enriched nutrient-cycling taxa such as Bradyrhizobium sp. and Nitrospira japonica. Conversely, C favored drought-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), including Bacillus zanthoxyli, Gaiella occulta, Roseiflexus sp., Pseudarthrobacter sp., and Paenibacillus sp. In the phyllosphere, both CM and BM showed lower abundance of Erysiphe necator (powdery mildew) and a higher relative abundance of Aureobasidium pullulans, a potential biocontrol agent. Cover crop-derived under-vine dry mulching improved the soil microclimate and moisture retention, positively influencing microbial richness and diversity and contributing to a more resilient and sustainable vineyard agroecosystem under rainfed conditions.

ABSTRACT. In the recent decades, vineyards have been managed using herbicides and intensive tillage to eliminate competition of adventitious vegetation for resources. However, these practices can negatively impact soil health. Intensive tillage often leads to the loss in soil structure and organic matter, and can decrease microbial biodiversity in soil vineyards (Abad et al., 2021), while herbicides can contaminate the soils and alter microorganism communities. In this context, the use of under-vine cover crops emerges as an alternative to improve soil characteristics and to increase microbial community diversity (Abad et al., 2023). The aim of this study was to evaluate these alternatives (conservation tillage (CT); Trifolium fragiferum cover crop (CC)) to under-vine herbicide application (HB) on grapevine water status, vegetative growth, yield, berry quality and soil bacterial and fungal communities. The experiment was set-up in a Tempranillo vineyard located in Navarra (Spain) over three consecutive seasons (2023-2025).

The impact of under-vine soil managements was dependent on the growing season. In this regard, grapevine water status measured as stem water potential (ψstem) was scarcely affected by treatments except in 2024, when HB showed the highest values of ψstem. These differences in water status caused changes in vegetative growth, CT and CC showing decreased values of aggregate shoot sections. Soil management under the vines did not affect yield during the first two seasons, CT vines showing lower values in 2025. Regarding berry quality parameters, little effect was observed, excepting for TSS and total anthocyanin values measured in 2024, when the values observed in CT and CC tended to decrease.

Microbial communities were affected by treatments according to the amplicon sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene (V4 region) and the fungal ITS1 region performed in 2024. Data revealed that under-vine management did not affect bacterial richness, while composition shifted slightly, with treatments explaining only a small part of the variation among samples. Regarding fungal communities, CC increased their diversity and had only a weak effect on modifying fungal composition. Additionally, results showed that CT increased mycorrhizal species richness compared to HB presumably by the higher diversity in adventitious species. Similarly, CC tended to increase mycorrhizal diversity – compared to HB– in soils and enhanced the root mycorrhizal colonization rate observed under the microscope. Altogether, our results show that alternatives to under-vine herbicide application, such as conservation tillage and cover crops, can improve biological soil health without substantially compromising grapevine yield and berry quality.

ABSTRACT. Agricultural sustainability requires production systems that maintain yields while preserving soil health and ecosystem functions. In viticulture, this challenge is particularly relevant, as grapevine performance depends on long-term soil fertility, nutrient and water balance, and ecosystem stability. The INBIODYN long-term field trial at Geisenheim University (Germany), established in 2006, compares integrated, organic, and biodynamic viticulture to assess how management systems influence vine performance and soil functioning over nearly two decades. During the initial phase following conversion, integrated management exhibited significantly higher yields and pruning weights compared to the organic systems. However, change-point analysis revealed a distinct temporal transition approximately 8–10 years after establishment: yield gaps relative to integrated management narrowed from -28% to -11% in organic and from -27% to -7% in biodynamic plots. Crucially, in vintages classified as “hot & dry”, the organic system actually achieved +2.3% and the biodynamic system +9.0% relative yield compared to integrated management. Despite lower early-season vigor, both fruit quality parameters (total soluble solids, acidity) and disease incidence (Botrytis) remained comparable among systems. Complementary belowground investigations revealed that organic and biodynamic management promoted greater total and fine-root length and surface area, particularly in the upper soil layers, and altered seasonal soil moisture and nitrogen dynamics. Organic and biodynamic soils exhibited higher mineralized nitrogen availability especially later in the season, reflecting higher mineralization rates. Soil moisture monitoring revealed greater early-season competition for water in the organic and biodynamic systems due to diverse cover crops, but enhanced topsoil recharge later in the season restored moisture levels to those of the integrated system, suggesting improved infiltration and water retention. Together, these findings provide a mechanistic explanation for the long-term yield recovery and drought adaptation observed in organically and biodynamically managed vines. Enhanced root proliferation, improved nutrient cycling, and moderated soil-water relations appear to underpin the gradual shift towards higher system resilience. The INBIODYN trial thus demonstrates that agroecological management can sustain productivity and stability in perennial systems under increasing climatic variability, emphasizing the importance of time, soil-plant feedbacks, and ecosystem processes in evaluating sustainability transitions.

ABSTRACT. Sustainability in Mediterranean viticulture increasingly depends on optimizing water use without compromising vine function, yield, or terroir expression. Grapevine cultivars differ widely in their hydraulic traits and water-use strategies, yet the physiological determinants of these differences remain insufficiently understood. This study examined how two early-ripening white cultivars, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc, respond to field-imposed water stress during berry ripening in a commercial vineyard representative of central Chile’s Mediterranean terroirs. Physiological measurements were used to characterize stomatal regulation, leaf hydraulic traits, and xylem vulnerability to embolism under two irrigation regimes. Chardonnay exhibited lower stomatal sensitivity to declining water potential, maintaining higher stomatal conductance and leaf hydraulic conductance (kleaf) under moderate stress compared with Sauvignon blanc. This behavior was associated with a greater leaf hydraulic capacitance (0.060 ± 0.002 MPa⁻¹ vs. 0.053 ± 0.003 MPa⁻¹) and higher thresholds for 50 % kleaf loss (−1.00 ± 0.10 MPa vs. −0.85 ± 0.10 MPa) and turgor loss (−1.94 ± 0.14 MPa vs. −1.76 ± 0.14 MPa). Despite these quantitative differences, both cultivars showed coordinated declines in gas exchange and leaf water status, suggesting a shared drought-response pattern. No evidence of acclimation mechanisms, such as osmotic adjustment or xylem anatomical modification, was detected over the experimental period. Interestingly, the contrasting stomatal sensitivities did not translate into significant differences in integral water-use efficiency or yield, implying physiological compensation between hydraulic and photosynthetic processes. These findings indicate that deficit irrigation during berry ripening may exert only moderate impacts on Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc productivity and water-use efficiency in Mediterranean climates. Understanding such cultivar-specific hydraulic thresholds offers practical value for site- and terroir-adapted irrigation management, supporting water conservation without compromising grape quality.

ABSTRACT. Among viticultural practices, Herbicide application and tillage are known to be some of the main threat for the soil biodiversity. However, these practices are the common options to date to manage weeds under the vine in the vineyard. The search for innovative and alternative practices, acceptable from a technical and economic point of view and with a more moderate environmental impact, is therefore essential to move practices towards greater sustainability (environmental, economic and social). The SOLIVITI (2021-2024) project aims to contribute to this search for innovative practices through a multi-criteria agro-environmental assessment of the impact of alternative methods for weed control. Although a focus on soil biodiversity was made, the impacts on weed flora, the agronomic performance of the vine as well as overall environmental sustainability through a Life Cycle Analysis were also monitored. On an experimental plot located in the South West of France (Gaillac vineyard), four weed control methods were implemented and followed for four years: electric weeding, biocontrol (pelargonic acid), chemical weeding, and mechanical weeding. Soil biodiversity (microorganisms and earthworms’ abundance and diversity) was monitored at T0, before the first application of weed control method, and then annually. The results indicate that the four technical approaches have similar impacts on soil biodiversity in the short (2 weeks), medium (1 year), and long terms (2, 3 and 4 years). The four methods exhibit differences in weed management effectiveness, but the results changed over the years depending on the vintage and the weather. Similarly, no differences were observed in vine vigor, water and nitrogen status, or yield. The Life Cyle Analysis also indicates no difference in global environmental impact of the four methods, but this result must be weighed against the uncertainty surrounding the data used (biocontrol manufacturing process, terrestrial ecotoxicity of herbicides, unknown impact of electric weeding on soil biodiversity, etc.). Overall, the Soliviti project demonstrated that electric weeding or biocontrol didn’t have a specific negative effect on soil biodiversity and were similar to conventional weeding methods.

ABSTRACT. Wine producers in Switzerland face the dual challenge of high production costs and increasing competition from inexpensive imported wines. In this context, some winegrowers highlight their environmental commitments to justify premium. However, such initiatives often remain isolated at the local scale, resulting in limited ecological coherence across the broader landscape. To address this gap, a regional strategy for sustainable viticulture is being implemented in the Yvorne winegrowing area (Vaud, Switzerland). The winegrowers grouped together under the Yvorne Grandeur Nature association aims to develop an integrated approach that enhances biodiversity, maintains soil functions, preserves grape quality, and strengthens the market appeal of wines. A catalogue of recommended practices was introduced in 2022 to encourage growers to adopt more sustainable methods. Its implementation is supported by technical monitoring. This guide is revised annually based on winegrower’s feedback and field observations. Its recommendations focus on fostering biodiversity, improving soil and water quality, reducing pesticide use, and promoting more efficient and targeted use of plant-protection products and fertilizers. Field trials, designed to address regional priorities, explore topics such as winter cover crop optimization in inter-rows, low-competition vegetation cover under vines, sustainable management strategies for invasive species (e.g., Erigeron spp.), the use of grape pomace as an organic amendment, promotion of rare species, and assessments of surface waters contamination risks. After four years, the project has already revealed encouraging outcomes: herbicide use across the vineyard has likely decreased, and the abundance of emblematic plant species such as Calendula arvensis or Orlaya grandiflora is likely increasing. The planned introduction of a certification label will help communicate these efforts and strengthen the identity of Yvorne wines. Ultimately, the knowledge generated through this initiative may position Yvorne as a reference model for sustainable viticulture, offering a model that can be adapted and applied to other winegrowing regions.