Modern viticulture in southern Europe: Vulnerabilities and strategies for adaptation to water scarcity

Abstract

b s t r a c tWater is now considered the most important but vulnerable resource in the Mediterranean region. Nevertheless, irrigation expanded fast in the region (e.g. South Portugal and Spain) to mitigate environmental stress and to guarantee stable grape yield and quality. Sustainable wine production depends on sustainable water use in the wine's supply chain, from the vine to the bottle. Better understanding of grapevine stress physiology (e.g. water relations, temperature regulation, water use efficiency), more robust crop monitoring/phenotyping and implementation of best water management practices will help to mitigate climate effects and will enable significant water savings in the vineyard and winery. In this paper, we focused on the major vulnerabilities and opportunities of South European Mediterranean viticulture (e.g. in Portugal and Spain) and present a multi-level strategy (from plant to the consumer) to overcome region's weaknesses and support strategies for adaptation to water scarcity, promote sustainable water use and minimize the environmental impact of the sector. © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. The wine grape industry in south Mediterranean EuropeWorld's wine production are located in a wide geographical Q2and climatic range, often in mid-latitude regions characterized by climate variability and stressful environments, such as the Mediterranean region (Fraga et al., 2013;Lionello et al., 2014). The European Union , is the world's leader in wine production with about 50% of world's vine-growing area and about 60% of total volume of production (USDA, 2014). France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal are the five leading EU wine producers and altogether they represent 90% of EU production (USDA, 2014). Spain has the largest vineyard area in the world (950,541 ha in 2014) with an increasing irrigated area (36% of the total, in 2014) (MAGRAMA, 2014) (Fig. 1). Portugal is the EU's 5th largest wine producer with a total of 6.7 Mhl in 2013 and it has a cultivated area estimated to be about 224,000 ha (IVV, 2015). In 2010, the irrigated area was estimated in 15% of the total area of vineyards (INE, 2010). However, irrigation continued expanding in the recent years in Portugal, in particular in the Alentejo region, and presently, the percentage of irrigated vines should be slightly higher and around 20%. * Corresponding author.E-mail address: miguelc@itqb.unl.pt (J.M. Costa).Mediterranean fresh water resources are under high pressure due to fast-growing population, increased water scarcity, extreme climate variability and intensive water use in agriculture, industry and tourism activities (Lange et al., 2005;Costa et al., 2007; EEA, 2012a,b; Lereboullet et al., 2013a,b;Blum, 2014). Water is now considered by EU experts as the most important but vulnerable resource in the Mediterranean region (EU-ERANETMED, 2014). In addition, climate scenarios for South Mediterranean Europe are not favourable for agriculture. The predicted lower precipitation, higher air and soil temperatures, more frequent and l...

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