The on-farm conservation of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) landraces assures the habitat diversity in the viticultural agro-ecosystem

Abstract

A sustainable maintenance of grapevine biodiversity at risk of genetic erosion should involve farmers in the conservation process. Many local varieties of high biological significance are residually cultivated in traditional and marginal agricultural areas or in rural contests endangered by different factor of biodiversity erosion. The landrace-based orchards in the innate areas, i.e. the in situ conservation on farm, represent hotspots of biodiversity, while preserving at the same time natural resources like soil fertility, air and landscape quality owing to the optimal relationship genotype-environment that allows environmentally friendly agronomical practices. The study aims at highlighting the importance of grapevine on-farm conservation with special attention to the ecological and environmental implications derived from the maintenance of habitat diversity and complexity in the viticultural agro-ecosystem. To the aim, data on landscape pattern, configuration and composition at large and detailed scale were measured according to the methodology of landscape ecology in a landrace-based viticultural area in central Italy, and the landrace-based vineyard’s patch structure, as well the surrounding vineyard landscape, were analysed for shape, complexity, heterogeneity of the margins. The results prove the ecosystem services provided by the landrace-based vineyards in their innate growing area. These services can be attributable to the conservation of a high natural capital within the vineyard agro-ecosystem. The re-functionalization of these productive spaces, particularly when relictual or abandoned, and the involvement of farmers in the conservation strategy by strengthening the perception of the multifunctional value of their productive contests could provide a valuable example of strategy for the on farm conservation of local germplasm, together with the preservation of environmental benefits.