Adaptation of grapevines to climate change
Climate change is causing major changes in winemaking changes in winemaking practices at management due to increased temperatures and reduced rainfall. due to increased temperatures and reduced rainfall.
The growth of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions has a negative impact on the development of the most widely cultivated grape varieties, on their phenolic composition and, ultimately written request, on wine quality.
Objectives
To maintain vine production and quality under future climatic conditions; and to study the adaptive capacity of several ancient grapevine varieties recovered in Navarra to different environmental factors associated with climate change.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) forecasts that by 2100:
ATMOSPHERIC CO2
Increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration (700 ppm).
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
An increase in temperature (4°C) due to the greenhouse effect.
WATER
A reduction in the availability of water.
In the Mediterranean area , the lack of adaptation to the most common conditions or stresses (high temperature, drought and salinity) limits the productivity of many species, endangering the sustainability of production.
Viticulture is of great importance in Spain, both in terms of the surface area it occupies and its socioeconomic relevance, and is distributed among the different appellations of origin, including those of Navarra and La Rioja. Recent work carried out at the Estación de Viticultura y Enología de Navarra (EVENA) has made it possible to recover a large issue of ancient vine varieties cultivated both in Navarra and in other regions of the Ebro Valley.
The study of these ancient varieties and their potential to adapt to stresses accentuated by climate change is not only economically but also ecologically beneficial, contributing greatly to the development of sustainable agriculture.
In this context, the group of research of Plant Stress Physiology at BIOMA has been working for about 20 years on the response and adaptation of crops, including grapevine, to different climate change scenarios. For this purpose, it has specific facilities for this subject of programs of study such as growth chambers, chamber greenhouses (GCG), and thermal gradient greenhouses (TGG).