Ecosystem services in vineyard landscapes: a focus on aboveground carbon storage and accumulation

A Simple Method Using an Allometric Model to Quantify the Carbon Sequestration Capacity in Vineyards

Winegrapes are an important component of agroecosystems. They are endowed with great potential to sequester and store carbon to slow down greenhouse gas emissions. Herein, the biomass of grapevines was determined, and the carbon storage and distribution features of vineyard ecosystems were correspondingly analyzed using an allometric model of winegrape organs. Then, the carbon sequestration of Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in the Helan Mountain East Region was quantified. It was found that the total carbon storage of grapevines increased with vine age. The amounts of the total carbon storage in the 5-year-old, 10-year-old, 15-year-old, and 20-year-old vineyards were 50.22 t·ha^-1, 56.73 t·ha^-1, 59.10 t·ha^-1, and 61.06 t·ha^-1, respectively. The soil held the majority of the carbon storage, which was concentrated in the top and subsurface layers (0-40 cm) of the soil. Moreover, the biomass carbon storage was mainly distributed in the perennial organs (perennial branches and roots). In young vines, carbon sequestration increased each year; however, the increased rate in carbon sequestration decreased with winegrape growth. The results indicated that vineyards have a net carbon sequestration capacity, and within certain years, the age of grapevines was found to be positively correlated with the amount of carbon sequestration. Overall, the present study provided accurate estimations of the biomass carbon storage in grapevines using the allometric model, which may help vineyards become recognized as important carbon sinks. Additionally, this research can also be used as a basis for figuring out the ecological value of vineyards on a regional scale.

Site characteristics determine the effectiveness of tillage and cover crops on the net ecosystem carbon balance in California vineyard agroecosystems

Globally, wine grape vineyards cover approximately 7.4 M ha. The potential for carbon (C) storage in vineyards is of great interest to offset greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. Sustainable soil management practices such as cover crop adoption and reduced tillage may contribute to soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. However, site-specific factors such as soil texture, other soil physicochemical properties, and climate largely influence the range and rate to which SOC may be stored. To measure the potential for C storage in vineyards under varying sustainable soil management practices, we calculated the net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) of three cover crops [perennial grass (Poa bulbosa hybrid cv. Oakville Blue); annual grass (barley, Hordeum vulgare); resident vegetation (natural weed population)] under conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) management. Results provided evidence that vineyards served as C sinks. In sandy soils, the type of cover crop and tillage may be of little influence on the NECB. While in finer-textured soils, tillage reduced the NECB and higher biomass-producing cover crops enhanced the overall C storage potential of the vineyard agroecosystem. Overall, our results revealed that site characteristics, namely, soil texture and climate, were key determinants of the C storage potential of vineyards in Mediterranean climates such as those found in coastal and inland California wine grape production regions.

What Is the Environmental Impact of Wine Entering Global Value Chains? Studying the Evolution of CO2 Emissions from the Export of Spanish Denomination of Origin Wines

The continuous growth of the international wine trade and the expansion of international markets is having significant commercial, but also environmental, impacts. The benefits of vineyards in terms of ecosystem service provision are offset by the increase in CO₂ emissions generated by transportation. Denominations of Origin, as quality labels, emphasise a wine's links to the terroir, where specific elements of culture and environment merge together. However, Denominations of Origin can also have differentiating elements as regards environmental performance. Drawing on an extended multiregional input-output model applied to the Spanish Denominations of Origin with the largest presence in the international wine trade, this study shows that wines with the greatest exporting tradition are those that most reduced their carbon footprint per litre of exported wine in the period 2005-2018, thus being the most environmentally efficient.

Carbon Storage Distribution Characteristics of Vineyard Ecosystems in Hongsibu, Ningxia

Given that the global winegrape planting area is 7.2 × 10⁶ hm², the potential for winegrape crop-mediated carbon capture and storage as an approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions warranted further research. Herein, we employed an allometric model of various winegrape organs to assess biomass distributions, and we evaluated the carbon storage distribution characteristics associated with vineyard ecosystems in the Hongsibu District of Ningxia. We found that the total carbon storage of the Vitis vinifera 'Cabernet Sauvignon' vineyard ecosystem was 55.35 t·hm^-2, of which 43.12 t·hm^-2 came from the soil, while the remaining 12.23 t·hm^-2 was attributable to various vine components including leaves (1.85 t·hm^-2), fruit (2.16 t·hm^-2), canes (1.83 t·hm^-2), perennial branches (2.62 t·hm^-2), and roots (3.78 t·hm^-2). Together, these results suggested that vineyards can serve as an effective carbon sink, with the majority of carbon being sequestered at the soil surface. Within the grapevines themselves, most carbon was stored in perennial organs including perennial branches and roots. Allometric equations based on simple and practical biomass and biometric measurements offer a means whereby grape-growers and government entities responsible for ecological management can better understand carbon distribution patterns associated with vineyards.

Validating the regional estimates of changes in soil organic carbon by using the data from paired-sites: the case study of Mediterranean arable lands

BACKGROUND

Legacy data are unique occasions for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration changes and spatial variability, but their use showed limitations due to the sampling schemes adopted and improvements may be needed in the analysis methodologies. When SOC changes is estimated with legacy data, the use of soil samples collected in different plots (i.e., non-paired data) may lead to biased results. In the present work, N = 302 georeferenced soil samples were selected from a regional (Sicily, south of Italy) soil database. An operational sampling approach was developed to spot SOC concentration changes from 1994 to 2017 in the same plots at the 0-30 cm soil depth and tested.

RESULTS

The measurements were conducted after computing the minimum number of samples needed to have a reliable estimate of SOC variation after 23 years. By applying an effect size based methodology, 30 out of 302 sites were resampled in 2017 to achieve a power of 80%, and an α = 0.05. A Wilcoxon test applied to the variation of SOC from 1994 to 2017 suggested that there was not a statistical difference in SOC concentration after 23 years (Z = - 0.556; 2-tailed asymptotic significance = 0.578). In particular, only 40% of resampled sites showed a higher SOC concentration than in 2017.

CONCLUSIONS

This finding contrasts with a previous SOC concentration increase that was found in 2008 (75.8% increase when estimated as differences of 2 models built with non-paired data), when compared to 1994 observed data (Z = - 9.119; 2-tailed asymptotic significance < 0.001). This suggests that the use of legacy data to estimate SOC concentration dynamics requires soil resampling in the same locations to overcome the stochastic model errors. Further experiment is needed to identify the percentage of the sites to resample in order to align two legacy datasets in the same area.