Extensive vineyard management and semi-natural habitats increase biodiversity and ecosystem services: insights from a global meta-analysis

Abstract

Biodiversity erosion is a key challenge that requires major adaptations in land use for sustainable agriculture. Globally, vineyards are among the most intensive farming systems with negative impacts on biodiversity and associated ecosystem services (ES). Nature-based solutions need to reconcile biodiversity conservation with grape production from the field to the landscape scale. In this study, we conducted a hierarchical global meta-analysis to assess the impact of various practices related to extensive management such as establishing vegetation cover, organic farming or low pesticide use on biodiversity and ES. Our analysis is based on 822 datasets extracted from 221 articles. Overall, extensive management increased biodiversity and ES provision by 14.2 % in comparison to more intensive practices. While provisioning ES, such as grape quantity and quality, showed heterogeneous reponses, biodiversity and most other ES benefited from maintaining vegetation cover in vineyards. We identified the strongest positive response to extensive management in carbon sequestration (+37.8 %), followed by erosion control (+26.4 %), soil fertility (+19.9 %), and pest control (+16.4 %). Our analysis revealed that farming practices modulated the effects of extensive management, with high-diversity cover crops enhancing, and herbicide use diminishing, the beneficial impact on biodiversity and ES. Maintaining semi-natural habitats in the landscape significantly boosted the positive effect of extensive management on pest control. Finally, organic management reduced grape yield by 20 % but it did not affect grape quality. Nature-based solutions in viticulture should be based on extensive vegetation management, diverse cover-crops and low pesticide use combined with significant amounts of semi-natural habitats in the landscape, while minimising yield loss.