Habitat management of organic vineyard in Northern Italy: the role of cover plants management on arthropod functional biodiversity

Abstract

The effect of cover plants on arthropod functional biodiversity was investigated in a vineyard in Northern Italy, through a 3-year field experiment. The following six ground cover plants were tested: Sweet Alyssum; Phacelia; Buckwheat; Faba Bean; Vetch and Oat; control. Arthropods were sampled using different techniques, including collection of leaves, vacuum sampling and sweeping net. Ground cover plant management significantly affected arthropod fauna, including beneficial groups providing ecosystem services like biological control against pests. Many beneficial groups were attracted by ground cover treatments in comparison with control, showing an aggregative numerical response in the plots managed with some of the selected plant species. Alyssum, Buckwheat and 'Vetch and Oat' mixture showed attractiveness on some Hymenoptera parasitoid families, which represented 72.3% of the insects collected by sweeping net and 45.7 by vacuum sampling. Phytoseiidae mites showed a significant increase on leaves of the vineyard plots managed with ground covers, in comparison with control, although they did not show any difference among the treatments. In general, the tested ground cover treatments did not increase dangerous Homoptera populations in comparison with control, with the exception of Alyssum. The potential of ground cover plant management in Italian vineyards is discussed: the overall lack of potential negative effects of the plants tested, combined with an aggregative numerical response for many beneficials, seems to show a potential for their use in Northern Italy vineyards.

The Effect of Cover Crops on the Biodiversity and Abundance of Ground-Dwelling Arthropods in a Mediterranean Pear Orchard

“…The beneficial effects of covers on carabids and staphylinids have been extensively reported [45,71,72], while in the case of spiders the results are more variable. Several studies have reported an increase in the abundance of spiders on the ground in orchards with a vegetation cover [73][74][75], while in other studies, a non-significant effect in comparison to bare ground was registered [45,63]. The scelionids were another group of insects that benefited from the sown cover.…”

Predatory Mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) in Agro-Ecosystems and Conservation Biological Control: A Review and Explorative Approach for Forecasting Plant-Predatory Mite Interactions and Mite Dispersal

“…Experiments carried out in the South of France, showed that predatory mites were present on herbaceous cover plants; however the main species encountered were not those occurring on vines (Tixier et al, 2015). As in (Burgio et al, 2016), the densities of predatory mites were usually higher in vineyards with cover crop than in vineyards without cover crops. Another hypotheses than simple reservoir effects can thus be drawn: (i) effect of cover crop pollen deposited on the vine leaves, (ii) effect of micro-climate conditions in vineyards managed with cover crops and/or (iii) effect of cover crop on vine physiology.…”

“…Effects other than the reservoir role can also exist. Burgio et al (2016) studied predatory mite communities in vineyards managed with several cover crops. They observed higher predatory mite densities on vines managed with ground cover.…”

The role ofTrichodermaspp. and silica gel in plant defence mechanisms and insect response in vineyard

“…Recently, applications of synthetic plant volatiles as attractants for beneficial insects were tested by field studies (James & Price, 2004; Simpson et al ., 2011 a ; Lucchi et al ., 2017). Moreover, the use of cover/plants management is considered an agroecological technique to enhance the vineyard functional biodiversity (Duso et al ., 1993, 2004, 2012; Gurr et al ., 2007; Thomson & Hoffmann, 2007; Altieri et al ., 2010; Burgio et al ., 2016). For this reason, using elicitors as an attractant for natural enemies and flowering plants to provide them food and shelter, represents potential to reduce the lag between the build-up of natural enemies and taking control of pests (Simpson et al ., 2011 b ).…”