An overview of the recent approaches to terroir functional modelling, footprinting and zoning
Notions of terroir and their conceptualization through agro-environmental sciences have become popular in many parts of world. Originally developed for wine, terroir now encompasses many other crops including fruits, vegetables, cheese, olive oil, coffee, cacao and other crops, linking the uniquenes...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2015-03-01
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| Series: | SOIL |
| Online Access: | http://www.soil-journal.net/1/287/2015/soil-1-287-2015.pdf |
| Summary: | Notions of terroir and their conceptualization through agro-environmental
sciences have become popular in many parts of world. Originally developed for
wine, terroir now encompasses many other crops including fruits, vegetables,
cheese, olive oil, coffee, cacao and other crops, linking the uniqueness and
quality of both beverages and foods to the environment where they are
produced, giving the consumer a sense of place. Climate, geology,
geomorphology and soil are the main environmental factors which make up the
terroir effect on different scales. Often considered immutable culturally, the natural components of terroir are actually a set of
processes, which together create a delicate equilibrium and regulation of its
effect on products in both space and time. Due to both a greater need to
better understand regional-to-site variations in crop production and the
growth in spatial analytic technologies, the study of terroir has shifted
from a largely descriptive regional science to a more applied, technical
research field. Furthermore, the explosion of spatial data availability and
sensing technologies has made the within-field scale of study more valuable
to the individual grower. The result has been greater adoption of these technologies but also
issues associated with both the spatial and temporal scales required for
practical applications, as well as the relevant approaches for data
synthesis. Moreover, as soil microbial communities are known to be of vital
importance for terrestrial processes by driving the major soil geochemical
cycles and supporting healthy plant growth, an intensive investigation of the
microbial organization and their function is also required. Our objective is
to present an overview of existing data and modelling approaches for terroir
functional modelling, footprinting and zoning on local and regional scales.
This review will focus on two main areas of recent terroir research:
(1) using new tools to unravel the biogeochemical cycles of both macro- and
micronutrients, the biological and chemical signatures of terroirs (i.e. the
metagenomic approach and regional fingerprinting); (2) terroir zoning on
different scales: mapping terroirs and using remote- and proxy-sensing
technologies to monitor soil quality and manage the crop system for better
food quality. Both implementations of terroir chemical and biological
footprinting and geospatial technologies are promising for the management of
terroir units, particularly the remote and proxy data in conjunction with
spatial statistics. Indeed, the managed zones will be updatable
and the effects of viticultural and/or soil management practices might be
easier to control. The prospect of facilitated terroir spatial monitoring
makes it possible to address another great challenge in the years to come:
the issue of terroir sustainability and the construction of efficient
soil/viticultural management strategies that can be assessed and applied across numerous
scales. |
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| ISSN: | 2199-3971 2199-398X |