Centre People
Marc Greven, BAgSc (hons), PhD
Scientist- Plant and Food Research
Background
Marc did his undergraduate studies in Tropical Agriculture in the Netherlands. After working in East Africa for five years he came to New Zealand where he worked in the vegetable seed industry before embarking on his PhD on “Environmental influences on the quality of vegetable seeds”, at Lincoln University. Marc started working for the Plant and Food Research Environment Group at the Marlborough Research Centre in 2000 where he continued doing work on seed quality but rapidly moved on to focus on irrigation research in apples, olives and grapes.
Expertise
Since 2001 Marc has been running several research experiments on irrigation, mainly in commercial vineyards, but also on small scale with vines grown in containers. The main aim of the studies was to establish the influence of irrigation on Plant physiology and phenology by measuring leaf water potential with the Schollander pressure bomb and gas exchange by porometer. With Steve Green (Palmerston North) he worked extensively on the use of sap flow to determine vine water use. Different vine canopy measurements were developed and refined to use as a cheap grower friendly indicators of vine water need. Vine physiological differences potentially caused by plant/water/soil interactions, like the importance of berry size on juice and wine quality was studied as well.
Working with irrigation has taken him in the field of the long term sustainability of viticulture. With colleagues from Palmerston North he has worked for several years on the effect of the CCA treated posts used in the vineyards, on water and soil quality. Sauvignon blanc rootstock evaluations are also part of his expertise as well as the impact of soil organic matter on vineyard soil health and the influence of vine growth.
Current Research
Continuing to establish soil, plant and water relationships in both Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir. Investigations into the effect of water stress on berry size and the potential influence on juice and wine flavour and aroma profiles. How to influence berry size distribution in the field by viticutural means? Marc also works on the long-term sustainability of vineyards, looking esp. vineyard management impacts on the soil and the environment in general.
Publications
- M. Greven, S. Green, B. Robinson, B. Clothier, I. Vogeler, R. Agnew, S. Neal, S. Sivakumaran 2007.
The impact of CCA Treated Posts in Vineyards on Soil and Ground Water. Water Science and Technology. 56 No 2, 161–168 - Clothier BE, Green SR, Vogeler I, Greven MM, Agnew R, van den Dijssel CW, Neal S, Robinson BH, Davidson P 2006.
CCA transport in soil from treated-timber posts: pattern dynamics from the local to regional scale.Hydrology and Earth Systems Science Discussions 3(4): 2037-2061. - Hupet, F., M. Greven, M.C.T. Trought, S.R. Green and B.E. Clothier 2005
Information content of data for identifying macroscopic water stress parameters: A study of grapevines. Water Resources Research 41(6), 15pp. - Agnew RH, Mundy DC, Spiers TM, Greven MM 2005.
Waste stream utilisation for sustainable viticulture. Water Science and Technology 51(1): 1-8 - Robinson, B.H., M.M. Greven, S.R. Green, S. Sivakumaran, P. Davidson, and B.E. Clothier. 2005.
Leaching of copper, chromium and arsenic from treated timber vineyard posts in Marlborough, New Zealand. Science of the Total Environment 364(1-3): 113-123.
