SOIL–PLANT–MICROBE INTERACTIONS IN VINEYARDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NUTRIENT CYCLING, GRAPEVINE NUTRITION AND SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) productivity, nutrient status and fruit quality depend not only on the physicochemical properties of the soil but on the diverse microbial communities that inhabit the rhizosphere and bulk soil, which mediate the transformation and supply of nitrogen, phosphorus and water to the vine [1]. Viticulture is a long-lived perennial cropping system in which reliance on synthetic fertilizers and fungicides has historically been high; however, rising input costs, climate change and the progressive restriction of copper-based and systemic fungicides are pushing the sector toward more biologically based management strategies that preserve and exploit the natural soil microbiome [2]. Beyond their agronomic role, rhizosphere and soil microorganisms have recently been linked to the sensory identity of wine through the concept of "microbial terroir" [3]. Evidence on these soil–plant–microbe interactions is nevertheless scattered across mycorrhizal physiology, soil microbial ecology, viticultural agronomy and oenology literatures, and is rarely synthesized within a single framework relevant to applied vineyard management.