COVER crops planted directly under grapevines can help lessen any potential effects of climate variability and improve land sustainability, according to researchers at the University of Adelaide.

Research showed the level of soil organic carbon (SOC) was nearly 23 per cent higher in areas that had cover crops below vines when compared to a standard method of herbicide spraying on the soil over a five-year growth period.

Cover crops are planted to provide soil with cover rather than for the purpose of being harvested.

Benefits of cover crops include slower erosion, improved soil health, enhanced water availability, smothered weeds, pest and disease control, and an increase in biodiversity.

Lead author and University of Adelaide PhD student Joseph Marks said the benefits of planting cover crops between the rows of vineyards was well known, however less research had been conducted on the effects of under-vine cover crops.

“Microbial activity increased by more than double in cover crop soils, owing to an increase in dissolved organic carbon and that there is evidence for more resistant carbon in cover crop soils,” Mr Marks said.

“These results suggest that cover crop management under-vine is a potential solution to increase SOC stocks within vineyard systems.

“Taken together, the results of this study indicate that a shift from bare earth to cover crops in the under-vine region has the potential to contain carbon in vineyard soils.”

The study was undertaken on two vineyard sites established in 2014, with soil from four different treatments examined – including two cover crop combinations, a straw mulch and a herbicide-managed control.

Soils were sampled under-vine to depths of 30cm, and were analysed for SOC concentrations and bulk density to determine the level of SOC in the soil.

The findings of the research – which was supported by Wine Australia through its scholarship program – were published in Science of the Total Environment.