May vineyard floor management affects indicators of soil quality?

Soil management techniques may influence soil vulnerability to threat factors such as erosion, compaction, loss of organic matter and biodiversity, contamination and, interacting with pedoclimatic and geo-morphological conditions, they may regulate soil chemical, physical and biological fertility. It has been observed that soil disturbance actions such as tillage, chemical weed, contamination may interact with edaphic communities, but this topic has been very poorly studied in vineyards. The objective of the study was to evaluate some soil quality parameters in vineyards subjected to different soil management practices. The vineyards were located in Piedmont (North West Italy) in the production area of Barolo wine. The soils were characterized by profile description, chemical-physical analysis, estimation of compaction and erosion. The used floor management techniques were described and amplitude and homogeneity of the natural grass cover were estimated. Biological fertility was assessed evaluating arthropod community (QBS-ar), microbial respiration and microbial biomass. The vineyards had an average slope of 14°, soils presented fine texture, high limestone content and alkaline pH; these factors determine a generally high erosion vulnerability. Autumn tillage alternating row-interspaces or on each row-interspaces is the most diffused floor management practice. Despite inter-row natural grass cover is becoming increasingly widespread in the this area, its application does not seem related to the prevention of soil vulnerability and to improve soil quality; for that reason no robust evidence of interactions between cultivation practices and soil quality indicators emerged from this first results. Nevertheless, it is clear that major and deeper informations would allowed farmers to be aware in choosing soil management techniques; in addition, more efficient practices in protecting soil from threats need to be widely spread, especially in vulnerable areas.