Data from: Promoting plant diversity and habitat heterogeneity through vineyard terracing

<p><strong><span>Questions</span></strong><span>:</span> <span>Viticulture on steep slopes has shaped landscape and biodiversity in many regions, but insufficient profitability has led to management cessation and shrub encroachment. A solution to maintain cultivation economically viable could be vineyard terracing. We aimed </span><span>to identify the potential of terracing to enhance plant diversity and habitat heterogeneity in vineyards, analyse effects of management intensity on vineyard vegetation, and assess how </span><span>plant communities change after vineyard abandonment.</span></p> <p><span><strong>Location</strong>:</span><span> Wine-growing region of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in Hesse (50.042342°N, 7.814533°E) and Rhineland-Palatinate (50.119139°N, 7.719275°E), Germany.</span><span>            </span></p> <p><span><strong>Methods</strong>:</span><span> We recorded vascular plant species and local vineyard parameters in vertically oriented vineyards with vegetated and tilled open inter-rows, in terraced vineyards with tilled terrace inter-rows and extensively managed embankments and in vineyard fallows in a total of 45 study sites. We used plant species richness, Ellenberg indicator values and Grime's strategy types to describe how traits and ecological requirements respond to distinct vineyard management.</span><span>   </span></p> <p><span><strong>Results</strong>:</span><span> Plant species richness and composition were determined by management-derived disturbance intensities. Extensively managed embankments had a distinct plant community, the highest plant species richness, more perennial and indicator species, and lower nitrogen indicator values compared to inter-rows. In contrast, highly disturbed open and terrace inter-rows revealed plant communities associated with annuals and ruderals, but species richness did not differ between terrace inter-rows and embankments. Plant communities of fallows were completely different with lower plant diversity. </span><span>       </span></p> <p><span><strong>Conclusions</strong>:</span> <span>Our results highlight the potential of terraced vineyards for plant diversity with nutrient-poor, extensively managed embankments providing conditions that have become rare in modern agricultural systems. A long environmental gradient from terrace inter-rows to embankments created habitat heterogeneity at a narrow space. In contrast, intensive inter-row management in vertically oriented vineyards hampers high plant diversity and abandonment</span><span> fosters the spread of woody species at the expanse of plant diversity.</span></p>