Benefits and tradeoffs of integrated sheep vineyard systems in California

National audience; California hosts one of the most valuable, diverse and intensive cropping systems in the world. Several rounds of intensification and chronic irrigation water shortages have incentivized highly specialized crop and livestock enterprises and scientific research and technological development tailored to simplified systems. The broader aim of our work is to study ecosystem services provided by livestock reintegration into perennial cropping systems and their potential to offset external inputs, mitigate climate change and provide an effective adaptive strategy to impending shifts in resource availability in California. We propose to take the specific example of Integrated Sheep Vineyard Systems in Northern California (ISVS), a growing agroforestry system. Although this practice is gaining popularity among growers, no impact assessments have been conducted and benefits and tradeoffs associated with sheep integration remain unclear. We will present preliminary results of an interdisciplinary project assessing how and to what extent sheep integration impacts multiple ecosystem services and in turn the economic and environmental sustainability of vineyard production systems. We will also present leverages available for wider adoption of such systems in California.