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Native insectary demonstration sites have been established in eight major wine regions across South Australia. Growers are being shown how to establish, maintain and monitor native plants for the presence of predatory arthropods, insectivorous/predatory birds and microbats.

Native plants provide a range of ecosystem services including weed suppression, erosion control, aesthetics, nutrient cycling, moisture retention, enhanced soil organic carbon and biological activity. Educational materials are being used to capture learnings and accelerate practice change adoption.

Objectives

The EcoVineyards project brings together more than 50 partnering organisations who are working collaboratively towards a common goal of growing resilience and future proofing production systems.

1. To prepare native insectary plants community lists tailored to each region.
2. To establish and monitor 26 native insectary demonstration sites across South Australia to enhance functional biodiversity and soil health. Including the installation of photo points, raptor perches and microbat boxes; collection of plant survival/growth and basic soil biodiversity metrics; and monitoring indicator arthropods found in association with insectary plants.
3. To run workshops/field days to provide practical tips on how to establish and monitor native insectary plantings and soil biodiversity, cost and benefit insights and results.
4. To collect performance and monitoring data to evaluate the success of biodiversity enhancement and knowledge uptake.
5. To develop educational materials to demonstrate biodiversity enhancement outcomes including the communication of findings via social media platforms.

Method/approach

Recent PhD research by Dr Mary Retallack found that native insectary plants can increase the presence of predatory arthropods (good bugs), and thereby enhance biological control of vineyard insect pests. This gives growers the confidence to incorporate selected native insectary plants in association with vineyards. Existing vegetation structures such as windbreaks, vegetation corridors, mid-row, under-vine, and headland areas can be enhanced to provide resources for insect predators, microbats, endangered insectivorous and predatory bird species. The potential of these plants can be evaluated by growers using observational techniques to determine their functional benefits.

Key findings

More than 50 partnerships have been created between government, industry and regional community groups throughout South Australia. In addition to three native insectary plants already identified for use in and around vineyards, a much broader suite of native plants have been identified to demonstrate the functional benefits of ground cover (undervine and mid-row), adjacent to strainer posts and to boost existing windbreaks and vegetation corridors.

This project is generating multiple, measurable and tangible benefits including biodiversity enhancement, native vegetation cover, biological control of grapevine pests, improved soil health, habitat for endangered birds, microbats and reptiles and improved landscape aesthetics.

Conclusions

The incorporation of native insectary plants has the potential to enhance biodiversity and effective conservation biological control efforts. They provide a suitable habitat to support diverse and functional populations of predatory arthropods, which contribute towards biocontrol of economically damaging vineyard pests and support a range of ecosystem services. The results of this study are likely to be applicable to a broad range of Australian production systems.