Five decades of soil erosion research in “terroir”. The State-of-the-Art

Abstract

Although soil erosion in vineyards is key to understanding the sustainability of agricultural management, there is not a worldwide definitive state-of-the-art review. It is accepted that soil erosion in vineyards has been more a scientific issue than an agronomic and environmental concern, and this review will point out key issues that will allow the designing of new and advanced research projects. It is demonstrated that soil erosion in vineyards is well assessed in the scientific literature with a diverse array of studies in Europe, but there is a lack of similar studies on other continents such as America and Oceania and no research in Africa or Asia. Chile and Germany were the pioneer research countries with professors Gerold Richter and Riquelme Chaparro leading early erosion work in vineyards, but the most surveyed countries are France, Italy and Spain, with Greece and Germany also having a large number of studies. Most of the research has been based on modelling, rainfall simulation and erosion plots. The survey concludes that soil erosion rates in vineyards are higher than those in other land uses and represents a worldwide threat to sustainability in vineyards. This is due to intense tillage, planting of vineyards on steep slopes and in poor soils. There is a need to find management practices that are socially and economically acceptable to farmers and that will achieve sustainability through reduction of soil losses via nature-based solutions.