How do agrochemicals affect tiny life in vineyard soils?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-03-19 09:30

New Zealand

Photo by Vindemia Winery on Unsplash

Little is known about the effect agrochemicals have on the vast array of tiny creatures that live in the soil, as most studies have focused on animals and plants large enough to be visible. Kiwi researchers evaluated 648 New Zealand vineyard soil samples using DNA sequencing, and found that different soil management approaches had different effects on the biodiversity of fungi, bacteria and small invertebrate animals. The authors say that while the agrochemicals did not have a large effect on soil biodiversity on average, their important finding was that the impact is different on different types of life in different locations, and some changes in biodiversity may also influence the quality of agricultural produce.

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Research Cell Press, Web page

Journal/
conference: iScience

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Auckland, Plant and Food Research

Funder: This study is part of the Vineyard Ecosystems Program delivered by the University of Auckland and The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited funded by the Bragato Research Institute, New Zealand Winegrowers and the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (contract PROP-38164-PSHIP).

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