By Chris Kick
Pennsylvania is the fourth largest wine producer in the United States, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The industry supports nearly 11,000 jobs and directly contributes $1.77 billion to the state economy annually. In an effort to produce more and better grapes at a lower cost and with less environmental impact, vineyard growers have increasingly planted grass between rows of vines. These "groundcovers" root shallowly, but can benefit vineyard soils and reduce the need for herbicide applications.
Now, a team of plant scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has found that implementing this practice impacts far more than previously thought. It not only alters the biology and ecology at the surface, where the grasses are planted, but also alters the system far below the surface, the researchers reported in a new study published in Phytobiomes Journal.
The team compared how vineyards with and without groundcover in the vine row impacted the soil microbiome — the community of bacteria and fungi associated with soil — across a soil profile about three feet deep over two growing seasons. They concluded that grass groundcover changed the soil microbiome far beyond the depth of its own root system.
Source : psu.edu