Geodiversity and biodiversity of the Ligurian terraced vineyards (NW-Italy)

Ligurian Region has a great geological, geomorphological, pedological, and climatic diversity which together determine a large variety of ecological conditions and consequently different types of vegetation (1). Therefore, there is a mosaic of natural landscapes (with different levels of biodiversity) to which the anthropic landscapes are directly linked. The interaction between the natural and cultural components not only generates different landscapes, but also influence the conditions of cultivation and the characteristics of agricultural products. In particular, each wine grape variety (and each wine) has its own natural and cultural landscape (2, 3). In this work, we applied a multidisciplinary approach which involved the investigation of the geological, geomorphological, geochemical, mineralogical, ecological and vegetational features of selected DOC vineyards occurring in the Ligurian terraced landscape. The analytical protocol included routine pedological and minero-petrographical investigations as well as geochemical analyses by means of Field Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (FP-EDXRF). Geomorphological evaluation as well as analysis of structural condition of the terraced vineyard were also performed. The study of vegetation has been carried out following the phytosociological method of the Zurich-Montpellier Sigmatist School. The results of this research evidenced that phenotypic differences can be observed in the same vineyard and even in a same cultivar (same genotypes) as a response to local variation of the geo-pedological and ecological features. (1) Vagge I., Mariotti M.G., 2010 - The vegetation series of Ligurian Region. From Blasi C. (ed.) The vegetation series of Italy. Palombi ed. (2) Brancucci G., Brancucci M., Marescotti P., Solimano M., Vagge I., Vegnuti R., 2017 - The Geodiversity of the Ligurian DOC Vineyards and its Relationships with the Terroir. IJESD, 8: 686-690 (3) Lugeri F.R., Amadio V., Bagnaia R., Cardillo A., Lugeri N., 2011 - Landscapes and Wine Production Areas: A Geomorphological Heritage. Geoheritage 3: 221-232