Climate changes in recent decades, the evolution of the drought phenomenon and their influence on vineyards in north-eastern Romania

Abstract

Unfavourable trends have been identified in the evolution of climate factors (temperatures, precipitation, etc.) over the past years, with a direct impact on the vegetative and productive potential of the vine. This calls for a reassessment of climate resources and the adaptation of cultivation technologies to the new conditions. Our paper analyses the climate data recorded between 1991 and 2020 for the Iaşi vineyard ecosystem, which allowed for the calculation of a series of bioclimatic indices and coefficients, deviations from the multiannual average values, soil moisture dynamics, and their influence on development of vegetation phenophases and grape production. The increasing tendency of the average annual temperature and the decreasing amounts of precipitation registered point to a marked warming of the vineyard climate, especially after 2000. The high values of temperatures, corroborated with the soil water deficit, determined an intensification of the atmospheric and pedological drought, a shift in vegetation phenophases, shortened development periods and a forced ripening of grapes, with a negative impact on yields, which fluctuated from one year to another. The analysis of the ecoclimate conditions over the past 30 years has highlighted an alternation of periods, a colder and wetter one between 1991 and 2006, and a warmer and dried one between 2007 and 2020.

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“…Therefore, strategies that involve the use of this class of chemicals must take into account current food security legislation [27]. The worrying fact is that according to the latest meteorological data a trend that involves prolonged uncharacteristic periods of severe drought is repeating itself whit higher and higher frequency [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37].…”

Carbon-Isotope Ratio (δ13C) and Phenolic-Compounds Analysis in Authenticity Studies of Wines from Dealu Mare and Cotnari Regions (Romania)

“…In Romania, viticulture has an old tradition, over 2000 years old [12], even if at present many of the old, local grape varieties are no longer used in production or they occupy very small areas. Currently, Romania ranks 6th in Europe and 12th in the world in terms of wine production, with more than 180 thousand hectares of vines.…”