Optimization of Vineyard Water Management: Challenges, Strategies, and Perspectives

Abstract

Water availability is endangering the production, quality, and economic viability of growing wine grapes worldwide. Climate change projections reveal warming and drying trends for the upcoming decades, constraining the sustainability of viticulture. In this context, a great research effort over the last years has been devoted to understanding the effects of water stress on grapevine performance. Moreover, irrigation scheduling and other management practices have been tested in order to alleviate the deleterious effects of water stress on wine production. The current manuscript provides a comprehensive overview of the advances in the research on optimizing water management in vineyards, including the use of novel technologies (modeling, remote sensing). In addition, methods for assessing vine water status are summarized. Moreover, the manuscript will focus on the interactions between grapevine water status and biotic stressors. Finally, future perspectives for research are provided. These include the performance of multifactorial studies accounting for the interrelations between water availability and other stressors, the development of a cost-effective and easy-to-use tool for assessing vine water status, and the study of less-known cultivars under different soil and climate conditions.

Modeling Carbon Balance and Sugar Content of Vitis vinifera under Two Different Trellis Systems

“…High temperatures, in combination with water deficit, influence vine physiology and accelerate berry ripening processes, resulting in unbalanced wines with a high alcoholic content and low polyphenolic complexity [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Moreover, the rise of the atmospheric CO 2 concentration, through its influence as the source of carbon for photosynthesis, will have a significant stimulatory effect on grapevine vigor and yield, affecting sugar content and secondary metabolites [ 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

“…Hence, the evaluation of the carbon balance in grapevine is of great importance, especially in premium-wine producing areas, where the proper management of the vineyard represents a sustainable method to reach optimal grape quality [ 6 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

“…However, a realistic and less time-consuming approach, in the long term, to the estimation of the plant supply–demand balance for carbohydrates may be offered by modeling, which is widely used to measure climate impacts on annual crops [ 25 , 26 ] but is less often applied to perennial crops as Vitis vinifera [ 6 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

Changes of Vine Water Status and Growth Parameters Under Different Canopy Managements on cv. Merlot (Vitis vinifera L.)

“…other stresses under field conditions. These responses may be related to physiological and molecular variations such as stoma activity, genetic potential, hormonal regulation as well as human effects (Flexas et al, 2002;Chaves et al, 2010;Walker et al, 2014;Medrano et al, 2015;van Leeuwen et al, 2019;Mirás-Avalos and Araujo, 2021).…”

Determinación del estado hídrico en viña a través de imágenes RGB y multiespectrales adquiridas por un VANT

“…Así, la programación de riego es un factor clave en el equilibrio entre producción y calidad, y en el contexto de escasez de agua, para el manejo sostenible de los recursos hídricos disponibles para usos agrícolas que cada vez son más limitados debido al incremento de la competencia entre los diferentes usos económicos, restricciones ambientales y los efectos del cambio climático [3]. En el marco de la viticultura de precisión, que busca mejorar la eficiencia en la gestión de los recursos disponibles en términos de calidad, producción y sostenibilidad basada en la variabilidad espacial del viñedo dentro de la parcela [4], se emplea el riego deficitario controlado que consiste en reemplazar solo parte de la evapotranspiración potencial del viñedo durante periodos fenológicos previamente establecidos teniendo efectos positivos sobre la calidad de la producción final [5], con una mínima reducción de la producción. La implementación del riego deficitario controlado requiere el control del estado hídrico de la cepa para establecer el momento óptimo de riego.…”