3. Experimental strategies for studying the biodiversity of vineyard soils

3.1 Winegrowing practices studied

The international literature focuses on wine-growing soils on several levels. Firstly, the biological quality of wine-growing soils is compared with that of soils used for other purposes, such as forests, meadows, fallow land, field crops or urban soils. Winegrowing is characterized by specific practices (spatialization of cultivation and machinery passages, frequency and temporality of interventions, use of fungicides) compared to other agricultural sectors or land uses. What's more, wine-growing soils are known to be low in organic matter and shallow, making them unsuitable for certain other crops. This first level therefore enables us to assess the overall biological quality of wine-growing soils relative to other soils.

...