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Relationship of Leaf Stable Isotopes (¹³C and ¹⁵N) to Biomass Production in Two Fertilized Merlot Vineyards

¹ Soil Ecology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Gaia Environmental Research and Education Center, Goulandris Natural History Museum, 13 Levidou Street, 14562 Kifissia, Greece, ² Boutari S.A., Goumenissa Winery, 61300 Goumenissa, Greece, ³ National Agricultural Research Foundation, Institute of Soil Classification and Mapping, 1 Theophrastou Street, 41335 Larissa, Greece, and ⁴ USDA-ARS, 120 Keim Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583 USA.

^* Corresponding author (email: stam{at}gnhm.gr; fax: +30 2 10808 7084)

Grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) are often cultivated under suboptimum conditions for both water and nutrients in order to enhance the quality of grapes for making wine. Since water supply and nitrogen nutrition are major determinants of photosynthetic activity, this study investigated the potential of leaf ¹³C and ¹⁵N to explain spatial variations in biomass production as a function of water use efficiency and fertilizer N uptake, respectively. The combined isotopic signal of the leaves, together with pruning weight, leaf nutrients, and soil properties, were measured in randomly selected field positions over two growing seasons in two fertilized, but different, Merlot vineyards. Significant correlations of surface soil properties and leaf nutrients with pruning weight were not great enough to explain spatial patterns in biomass production. In contrast, leaf ¹³C and ¹⁵N, when used as independent variables in multiple regression, explained 71% of the spatial variation of pruning weight across both fields and growing seasons. Most of the explained model variability was attributed to leaf ¹⁵N (r² = 0.54), but within single years leaf ¹³C was better correlated to biomass. The negative correlation between these two isotopes and pruning weight was high only within the vineyard that had steep topographic features and spatially variable growth patterns. It indicated a response of vines to adverse soil conditions by a progressive reduction of water use efficiency and an increase in fertilizer N uptake downslope from the low- to the high-biomass areas of this field. If these relationships persist in other fertilized and water-stressed fields, the isotopic signature of the leaves may be an important tool for application of site-specific management practices within single vineyards.

Key words: water use efficiency, N nutrition, soil properties, leaf nutrients