Speaker Highlight: Dr. Cristina Lazcano

Assessing the Feasibility of Regenerative Management for California Vineyards

November 13    I    9:00-10:00 am

This presentation will show the preliminary results of a three-year, large-scale project performed in various vineyards in California. The project explores the benefits and tradeoffs of compost use, no-till, and sheep grazing for soil health, vine yield, and nutrition. The presentation also includes an economic analysis of the practices.

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Dr. Lazcano currently leads a team of 20 researchers at different career stages and from different backgrounds, focused on understanding the links between soil biodiversity and agroecosystem functioning. The goal of her research is to generate ecologically based soil management strategies that will reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture, with a strong focus on winegrape production. Through on farm collaborative research, Dr. Lazcano hopes to help winegrape producers understand how to improve soil health and C sequestration while producing high quality grapes.  Currently, Dr. Lazcano leads several projects to understand whether regenerative agriculture is the path forward in semiarid regions like California, assessing agronomic, environmental, and economic benefits of this type of production.

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Resources:

• Website

• 91: Carbon Sequestration

• Vineyard Nitrous Oxide Emissions Fast Facts

• Soil management induced shifts in nematode food webs within a Mediterranean vineyard in the Central Coast of California (USA)

• Arbuscular mycorrhizal effects on plant water relations and soil greenhouse gas emissions under changing moisture regimes

• Soil nitrous oxide emissions in forage systems fertilized with liquid dairy manure and inorganic fertilizers

• Compost benefits for agriculture evaluated by life cycle assessment. A review

• Short-term effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on soil microbial community structure and function

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