Wines & Vines

practicalwinerylibrary.com Access Practical Winery & Vineyard article archives online TECHNICAL RESOURCE FOR GROWERS & WINERIES 73 Preventing spread of Lobesia botrana By Rhonda Smith, Monica Cooper and Lucia Varela 74 Nature of wine lees By Bruce Zoecklein 81 Vine rebellion against imbalance By Patty Skinkis grapegrowing Vineyard of the Future initiative New and emerging technologies BY Sigfredo Fuentes, University of Melbourne, Australia, Roberta De Bei and Stephen D. Tyerman, Plant Research Centre, University of Adelaide A griculture, including the viticulture industry, is highly vulnerable to climate change, therefore high levels of adaptive responses are required and expected.1,15 These adaptive responses will rely on accurate determinations about the magnitude of climate change effects on yield and quality of wine grapes.23 In a warming climate scenario, accompanied by increasing frequency and severity of climatic anomalies such as heat waves, water use might increase in an attempt to reduce heat and water stress.4,14 A double warming effect can also be produced due to a compression of phenological stages in grapevines, resulting in early harvest during hotter months.23 An increased need for irrigation could also be exacerbated due to reductions in precipitation in grapegrowing regions such as California, Chile, Europe and Australia.17,18,23 Furthermore, the most worrying effects for the viticulture industry around the world are the global geographic shifts in land and climate suitability for agricul68 p r acti c al w i ne ry & v i n e yard AU G U ST 20 13 ture, which in the Southern Hemisphere would be southward.13,22 Some adaptive responses already have been identified, such as yield compensation strategies to account for reductions in quality, shifting sites of vineyards and variety substitution.23 However, there are many irrigation and canopy-management techniques that can be applied to ameliorate the effect of climate change on existing varieties and winegrowing regions. The Vineyard of the Future (VOF) initiative, led by the University of Adelaide, has developed and tested new and emerging technologies in an effort to find adaptive tools to mitigate the effects of climate change on grapevines. Traditional monitoring of plant growth and physiological variables involves discrete frequency in sampling (for irrigation scheduling). This method will likely miss important processes in the viticulture crop cycle, especially in the event of climatic anomalies, which reduce the response time of amelioration management techniques. Developing and testing new and emerging technologies are the main focuses of the Vineyard of the Future (VOF) initiative led by the University of Adelaide in an effort to use novel techniques to find efficient mitigating or adaptive tools to manage the effects of climate change on grapevines. VOF technologies are based on the intensive monitoring of spatial and temporal variations of soil, plant and atmosphere factors. A great volume of data collection also requires more robust and complex analysis methods to explain the effects of climate change on plant physiology, phenology, growth, water status and balance between the reproductive and vegetative organs, which are critical for quality grapes. Within this system, management strategies such as irrigation techniques, canopy management, canopy sprays, shading materials and new varieties can be tested to find the most effective adaptation. The VOF initiative has spread to other viticulture regions around the world. Countries such as Spain (professor Javier Tardaguila, University of La Rioja), the United States (California, E. & J. Gallo Winery) and Chile (professor Samuel Ortega-Farias and Dr. Carlos PobleteEcheverria, University of Talca) are now participating in the VOF initiative. This article discusses some techniques developed within the VOF framework that will soon be available to growers to assess spatial and temporal changes in

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