Biodiversity Monitoring

Monitoring biodiversity of plants and insects allows us to better understand the ecological balance in your vineyards. We believe that such activity will be beneficial for grapes’ and wines’ quality while respecting the environment. The vineyard is seen as an ecosystem in which all the biological components must strive for a common harmony. In order to apply eco-sustainable management, it is important to measure and understand how the living beings that populate the vineyard interact with each other and with the vine.

For the biodiversity monitoring in vineyards we perform two types of analyses:

Entomological Analyses

Insects are increasingly used to measure wildlife biodiversity in many environments, including vineyards. In fact, they are among the richest taxonomic groups in species – they are almost always very mobile animals, and have life cycles that follow one another quickly.

Thanks to these characteristics, they are able to record rapid changes in the ecosystem and in the composition of the landscape. We can study different types of indicators through the entomological analysis, that allows us to:

• measure the entomological biodiversity of the vineyard;
• evaluate the ecological balances;
• know the pollinating morphospecies and evaluate their biodiversity;
• provide answers to pest control activities;
• verify the impact of agricultural activities on natural balances.

Floristic Analyses

The flora that grows in the vineyards does not only make it precious with its colours during the different seasons, but it also provides important information about their deeper characteristics. Spontaneous plants are in balance with the soil and climate in which they live; this allows us to relate the cultivation with the natural environment in which they are inserted. Furthermore, the presence or absence of some plants is directly influenced by human activities and by the management of the vineyard. The floristic composition of a vineyard is strongly correlated to soil management. Floristic indicators and indices allow us to:

• evaluate the quality of the vineyard floor covering ;
• measure the floristic biodiversity;
• identify the presence of allochtonous species;
• correlate the presence of useful insects;
• suggest the best vineyard floor management technique (partial or complete cover, spontaneous vegetation or sown cover crop.