Mitigation of Vineyard Greenhouse Gas Production Using Organic Floor Management Approaches

This project represents an overarching effort to develop accurate metrics for vineyard carbon footprints under two widely used organic treatments. The project coordinates with efforts by Dr. William Salas (Applied Geosolutions LLC) and Alison Jordan of the Wine Institute to calibrate the DeNitrification DeComposition model (DNDC). The model will be embedded into decision support systems (DSS) providing trending analyses for use by practitioners for carbon and energy assessments (https://metrics.sustainablewinegrowing.org/). The modeling exercises will allow us to test multiple management practices in order to lessen (mitigate) N2O emissions from California vineyards. The data is being made available to Dr. Alissa Kendall and Sonja Brodt of the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering and Agricultural Sustainability Institute to assemble life cycle analyses for carbon footprints of vineyards. In this report we outline mechanistic studies undertaken to understand microbial processes and therefore better calibrate the DNDC model.