The effect of vineyard management practices on the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been shown to have potentially significant applications for sustainable agricultural ecosystems including vineyards. The increased diversity of AMF has been indicated to be beneficial and increase resilience to environmental changes. In order to effectively utilise AMF communities and their benefits in vineyard ecosystems, a better understanding of how management practices influence AMF diversity and composition is needed. Moreover, little is known as to whether AMF communities found in organically managed vineyards are distinct from those found under conventionally managed vineyards. Therefore, vineyards were surveyed across the Marlborough region in order to identify the AMF communities colonising the roots of different rootstocks grafted with Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir varieties in both conventional and organic systems. The AMF communities were identified based on spores isolated from trap culture that were set up with the collected grapevine roots, and by next-generation sequencing (Illumina Miseq). The identified AMF species/genera belonged mainly to Glomeraceae and Claroideoglomeraceae followed by Diversisporaceae, Paraglomeraceae, Archaeosporaceae and Gigasporaceae. The results revealed a significant (P < 0.05) difference in AMF community diversity and composition between organic and conventional vineyards as well as a significant interaction between rootstock and the management practice. This result indicated that some rootstocks might be more suited to organic systems due to the AMF communities they support under this management practice. This finding could provide an increased benefit under organic systems supporting higher biodiversity