Woody habitats and dry conditions limit pest occurrence in vineyards

Abstract Landscape heterogeneity, notably the amount of semi‐natural habitats, has been found to enhance natural enemies of crop pests and biological pest control in agricultural landscapes. Moreover, increasing host‐crop areas can directly affect the dynamics of pest or pathogen populations by providing them with more resources. However, the actual beneficial impacts of diversifying agricultural landscapes on pest or pathogen population levels are still poorly demonstrated, limiting farmers' adoption of such approaches. Here, using national‐scale data collected between 2014 and 2019 and Bayesian spatial models, we investigated how land use in the municipality and meteorological context affected the occurrence of two main pest and pathogen in vineyards: downy mildew (632 fields per year) and grape berry moth (225 fields per year). Our analysis revealed that the probability of occurrence of downy mildew and grape berry moth decreased as the percentage of woodland in the municipality increased. Additionally, we found that the probability of occurrence of downy mildew strongly depended on the meteorological context, as the probability of occurrence of downy mildew increased with the mean rainfall during spring and summer. Our analysis revealed no effect of the share of organic farming vineyard in the municipality on pest pressure. Synthesis and applications. Our study demonstrates that diversifying vineyard‐dominated landscapes by increasing the area of woody habitats could limit the occurrence of downy mildew and grape berry moth, which are responsible for most pesticide applications in vineyards. This work provides a significant step forward in the design of pest‐suppressive landscapes that highlight the key role of woody habitat maintenance in vineyard landscapes. Future work should now investigate how such nature‐based solutions could provide other benefits to farmers and the entire society.