Assessing the effects of resident vegetation as a regenerative soil management strategy on soil carbon storage and soil health in Canadian vineyard soils on Pelee Island

农业集约化需要重型机械、化肥和除草剂，这造成污染、土壤侵蚀和绿色室内气体，并降低土壤肥力和生物多样性。覆盖作物的种植和免耕农业是最近在一些葡萄园的葡萄行之间采用的再生土壤管理策略。由于健康的土壤含有丰富的碳，这增加了土壤的团聚体结构，并作为养分的储存库，再生策略往往侧重于增加土壤中的碳。土壤碳储存还可以抵消温室气体排放，增加土壤微生物的生物多样性。然而，由于这些技术可能会导致短期产量下降，而土壤健康的改善需要数年时间才能观察到，因此一些农学家对采用这些策略持抵制态度。贝利岛酒厂的葡萄园经理是葡萄园覆盖种植的早期支持者。20多年前，他在他们的一些田地里种植了由本地多年生植物组成的“常驻植被”。据推测，引入常驻植被后，土壤碳增加，但碳储量的大小或碳积累的速度是否达到峰值是未知的。新鲜的有机物最初被纳入土壤中最不稳定的碳库，而更具弹性的土壤有机物的形成可能会受到增加微生物矿化的肥料的限制。为了评估使用常驻植被作为增加土壤碳储量的机制，我们将使用稳定同位素技术来证明，从常驻植被添加到土壤中的一些碳与矿物质相关联，在那里它被保护免受微生物腐烂。利用常驻植被的不同持续时间（2至21年）在不同的领域，使贝利岛葡萄园一个理想的天然实验室，以评估1）在西南部的安大略石灰质土壤中的碳捕获和2）这种做法对土壤健康和土壤微生物活性的影响，居民植被的持续影响-这些结果对于Pelee Island Winery指导未来影响葡萄生产的土壤管理策略以及参与加拿大提议的碳税抵消系统至关重要。

Intensification of agriculture requires heavy machinery, fertilizers and herbicides which create pollution, soil erosion and green house gases and decrease soil fertility and biodiversity. The planting of cover crops and no-till agriculture are regenerative soil management strategies recently adopted between vine rows in some vineyards. Because healthy soils contain abundant carbon, which increases soil aggregate structure and acts as a repository for nutrients, regenerative strategies often focus on increasing carbon in the soils. Soil carbon storage also counters greenhouse gas emissions and increases soil microbe biodiversity. However, because these techniques can result in short-term decreased yield and improvements to soil health take years to observe, there is resistance among some agriculturalists to adopt these strategies. The manager of the vineyard for Pelee Island Winery was an early proponent of cover cropping in vineyards. Over 20 years ago he planted "resident vegetation" consisting of native perennials in some of their fields. It is assumed that soil carbon increased after introducing the resident vegetation, but the size of the carbon stocks or whether the rate of carbon accumulation has peaked is unknown. Fresh organic matter is initially incorporated into the most labile pool of carbon in the soil and the formation of more resilient soil organic matter can be limited by the addition of fertilizers which enhance microbial mineralization. To evaluate the use of resident vegetation as a mechanism of increasing soil carbon stocks we will use stable isotope techniques to demonstrate that some carbon added to the soil from the resident vegetation becomes associated with minerals where it is protected from microbial decay. The varying duration of the use of resident vegetation (2 to 21 years) in different fields makes the Pelee Island vineyard an ideal natural laboratory to assess 1) the ongoing effects of resident vegetation on carbon capture in the calcareous soils of south-western Ontario and 2) the impact this practice has had on soil health and soil microbial activity - these results are critical to Pelee Island Winery to direct future soil management strategies that affect grape production and for participation in Canada's proposed carbon tax offset system.