Suchergebnisse

Extended periods without precipitation, observed for example in central Europe including Germany during the seasons from 2018 to 2020, can lead to water deficit and yield and quality losses for grape and wine production. Irrigation infrastructure in these regions to possibly overcome negative effects is largely non-existent. Regional climate models project changes in precipitation amounts and patterns, indicating an increase in frequency of the occurrence of comparable situations in the future. In order to assess possible impacts of climate change on the water budget of grapevines, a water balance model was developed, which accounts for the large heterogeneity of vineyards with respect to their soil water storage capacity, evapotranspiration as a function of slope and aspect, and viticultural management practices. The model was fed with data from soil maps (soil type and plant-available water capacity), a digital elevation model, the European Union (EU) vineyard-register, observed weather data, and future weather data simulated by regional climate models and downscaled by a stochastic weather generator. This allowed conducting a risk assessment of the drought stress occurrence for the wine-producing regions Rheingau and Hessische Bergstraße in Germany on the scale of individual vineyard plots. The simulations showed that the risk for drought stress varies substantially between vineyard sites but might increase for steep-slope regions in the future. Possible adaptation measures depend highly on local conditions and are needed to make targeted use of water resources, while an intense interplay of different wine-industry stakeholders, research, knowledge transfer, and local authorities will be required.

Extended periods without precipitation, observed for example in central Europe including Germany during the seasons from 2018 to 2020, can lead to water deficit and yield and quality losses for grape and wine production. Irrigation infrastructure in these regions to possibly overcome negative effects is largely non-existent. Regional climate models project changes in precipitation amounts and patterns, indicating an increase in frequency of the occurrence of comparable situations in the future. In order to assess possible impacts of climate change on the water budget of grapevines, a water balance model was developed, which accounts for the large heterogeneity of vineyards with respect to their soil water storage capacity, evapotranspiration as a function of slope and aspect, and viticultural management practices. The model was fed with data from soil maps (soil type and plant-available water capacity), a digital elevation model, the European Union (EU) vineyard-register, observed weather data, and future weather data simulated by regional climate models and downscaled by a stochastic weather generator. This allowed conducting a risk assessment of the drought stress occurrence for the wine-producing regions Rheingau and Hessische Bergstraße in Germany on the scale of individual vineyard plots. The simulations showed that the risk for drought stress varies substantially between vineyard sites but might increase for steep-slope regions in the future. Possible adaptation measures depend highly on local conditions and are needed to make targeted use of water resources, while an intense interplay of different wine-industry stakeholders, research, knowledge transfer, and local authorities will be required.

Extended periods without precipitation observed for example in Central Europe including Germany during the seasons from 2018 to 2020, can lead to water deficit and yield and quality losses for grape and wine production. However, irrigation infrastructure is largely non–existent. Regional climate models project changes of precipitation amounts and patterns, indicating an increase in frequency of occurrence of comparable situations in the future. In order to assess possible impacts of climate change on the water budget of grapevines, a water balance model was developed, which accounts for the large heterogeneity of vineyards with respect to their soil water storage capacity, evapotranspiration as a function of slope and aspect, and viticultural management practices. The model was fed with data from soil maps (soil type and plant available water capacity), a digital elevation model, the European Union (EU) vineyard–register, observed weather data and future weather data provided by regional climate models and a stochastic weather generator. This allowed conducting a risk assessment of the drought stress occurrence for the wine–producing regions Rheingau and Hessische Bergstraße in Germany on the scale of individual vineyard plots. The simulations showed that the risk for drought stress varies substantially between vineyard sites but might increase for steep–slope regions in the future. Possible adaptation measures depend highly on local conditions and to make targeted use of the resource water, an intense interplay of different wine-industry stakeholders, research, knowledge transfer, and local authorities will be required.

Viticulture and winemaking are important socioeconomic sectors in many European regions. Climate plays a vital role in the terroir of a given wine region, as it strongly controls canopy microclimate, vine growth, vine physiology, yield, and berry composition, which together determine wine attributes and typicity. New challenges are, however, predicted to arise from climate change, as grapevine cultivation is deeply dependent on weather and climate conditions. Changes in viticultural suitability over the last decades, for viticulture in general or the use of specific varieties, have already been reported for many wine regions. Despite spatially heterogeneous impacts, climate change is anticipated to exacerbate these recent trends on suitability for wine production. These shifts may reshape the geographical distribution of wine regions, while wine typicity may also be threatened in most cases. Changing climates will thereby urge for the implementation of timely, suitable, and cost-effective adaptation strategies, which should also be thoroughly planned and tuned to local conditions for an effective risk reduction. Although the potential of the different adaptation options is not yet fully investigated, deserving further research activities, their adoption will be of utmost relevance to maintain the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of the highly valued viticulture and winemaking sector in Europe. ; This study was funded by Clim4Vitis project—"Climate change impact mitigation for European viticulture: knowledge transfer for an integrated approach", funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under grant agreement no. 810176; it was also supported by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/04033/2020.