Arthropod biodiversity and abundance in organically and conventionally managed, cool-climate vineyards in Orange, New South Wales, Australia

Little work has been done comparing arthropod biodiversity in organically and conventionally managed vineyards in Australia. Hence, we evaluated arthropod biodiversity and abundance in organically and conventionally managed vineyards in Orange Bioregion of New South Wales. Field trials were organized in Tamburlaine, an organically managed vineyard and in Hedberg Hill, a conventionally managed vineyard in spring 2015 and autumn 2016. Abundance and diversity were determined using Margalef’s diversity index. A total of 266,798 arthropods belonging to 11 Orders were recorded in both Tamburlaine and Hedberg Hill vineyards during sampling periods. The Collembola, Hymenoptera, Thysanoptera, and Diptera were the most dominant groups in both vineyards, whereas those belonging to Hemiptera, Neuroptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Coleoptera, Araneae, and the subphylum Myriapoda were the least. Analysis of abundance of arthropods between spring 2015 and autumn 2016 showed that a significant difference occurred in both vineyards. However, the biodiversity of arthropods sampled in both spring 2015 and autumn 2016 showed no significant difference between the populations obtained from either. Although no difference was evident in terms of biodiversity, significantly higher mean numbers of arthropods in Tamburlaine occurred than in Hedberg Hill. This pilot study shows that the management practice has an effect on arthropod abundance, but not on arthropod diversity. The results achieved offer an insight into the role of management practice on arthropod abundance and biodiversity in vineyards.