Description of the relationship between trunk disease expression and meteorological conditions, irrigation and physiological response in Chardonnay grapevines

Abstract

Esca disease and Botryosphaeria dieback are currently considered as serious grapevine diseases which affect vineyard health and induce economic losses. Both of these trunk diseases (GTDs) are caused by a complex of pathogens, and foliar expression is influenced by several factors, including environmental factors such as water stress. To manage water stress in some vine areas, culture practice based on irrigation systems for limiting water stress have been developed; however, little knowledge of the influence of such systems on GTD emergence is currently available. The present paper addresses the impact of irrigation systems and climatic factors (rainfall and temperature) on the expression of GTDs, specifically esca and Botryosphaeria dieback. A field experiment on Chardonnay in North East Spain, a vine growing area where drought is present and which is managed by an irrigation system, was therefore carried out during a 3-year period. The water stress impact on GTD expression was evaluated by measuring the GTD incidence and analysing different physiological parameters at different phenological stages, including principal component analysis and gene expression. The main finding of this study was the significant roles of vine transpiration and water availability, which depend on irrigation volume and rainfall amount; together, they may explain the erratic symptom expression in plants infected by GTD fungi depending on the year. All these parameters are discussed to better understand the relationship between GTD expression, irrigation system and climatic factors.

The Combination of Both Heat and Water Stresses May Worsen Botryosphaeria Dieback Symptoms in Grapevine

“…Indeed, if temperature cannot be manipulated in the vineyard, a fine piloting of irrigation could limit the risk of infections when a heat wave rages in a given field. Such fine-tuning of irrigation may be more important in the future since an increasing number of vineyards would undergo drought in the coming climate change conditions and more irrigation, as initiated by [ 72 ] in a GTD situation.…”

The microbiota of the grapevine holobiont: A key component of plant health

“…The impact of certain abiotic stresses ( e.g., heat, water) on triggering or worsening symptoms has been studied and confirmed [148] , [149] , [150] even if it seems that these stresses are not related to the early phase of infection [151] . The fact that cultural practices or abiotic stresses also influence the composition and structure of the microbiota enlightens the hypothesis of a microbial shift associated with certain grapevine declines.…”

Intraspecific Leaf Trait Variation across and within Five Common Wine Grape Varieties

“…Although a comprehensive review of these studies is beyond the scope of our analysis, these studies do suggest that our trait values broadly fall within the functional trait space occupied by wine grapes. For example, previous studies indicated the following trait ranges for vines of multiple varieties across a diverse set of conditions and stages: A max between ~5 and 20 μmol CO 2 m −2 s −1 , leaf N between ~1.5% and 3.3%, and LMA ranging from ~30 to 270 g m −2 [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ]. The dataset in this study broadly aligns with these findings, indicating that unlike other crops such as soy [ 13 ], wheat, and maize [ 17 ], which occupy the extreme “resource-acquiring” end of the LES trait space, wine grapes are largely intermediary in their LES trait values when compared with plants globally ( Figure 5 ).…”