The climate change influences and trends on the grapevine growing in Southern Romania: A long-term study

Abstract

The topography and pedoclimatic conditions in Romania are diverse and in many places highly favourable for viticulture. In the past 21 years it was observed that the climate slowly changed, with a visible impact on grape quality. The influence of climate change on grape growing depends however on the vineyard location, relief and soil, multiple combination of varieties and rootstocks, water supply, as well as viticultural practices. The influence of the climate change was studied during a long period of time, between 1998 and 2018, in our experimental vineyard at UASVM Bucharest (N Lat.: 44∘47′07′′; E Long.: 26∘076′28′′; elevation 87 m), located in the Southern part of Romania. The observations made during last twenty one years on qualitative and quantitative parameters of the most widespread Romanian grape variety, Fetească regală grafted on the Kober 5 BB rootstock, along with the calculated values for the usual climatic indices describing viticultural climate, showed some significant climate changes in comparison with a reference period between 1961 and 1997 taken from the existent scientific literature. Our observations during past twenty years reveal a trend of increase in all studied temperature-dependent climatic indices during the grape growing season, with a large variation in the absolute minimum temperatures during winter, which suggests a shift towards an increased thermal amplitude between summer and winter temperatures in certain years. Compared with the reference period (1961–1997), an increase in the following temperature-dependent indices was observed: +0.75 ∘C for the average annual temperature; +0.78 ∘C for average temperature in the growing season; +2.37 ∘C for average maximum temperature in the warmest month; +2.11 ∘C for average maximum temperature in the summer; +234 units in Huglin index; + 173 units in Winkler index and +0.35 ∘C in Cool night index. These climate changes bring important variations of grape yield due to the minimum temperatures during winter and significant reduction of total acidity, along with a significant increase of sugar concentration. This study aids to understand and anticipate the rate of climate change in Southern Romania, the extent of the changes in grape quality and the interventions required to maintain constant grape and wine quality.

Forecast for the zone of viticulture in European Russia under climate change

“…In 2007, a decrease in the number of winters with threatening drops in air temperature was predicted (The Economics of Climate Change, 2006), but according to the data of 1980-2019 the minimum temperature and the number of dangerous frosts in winter did not decrease despite the rise of the mean winter temperature. The tendency toward an increase in the frequency of extreme events and a decrease in the absolute minimum of annual temperature was observed in many regions of the world under global warming (Bucur et al, 2019).…”

Assessment of the Current and Projected Conditions of Water Availability in the Sevastopol Region for Grape Growing

“…In wine-growing regions of central Italy, an increase in total precipitation and the number of rainy days was observed between 1995 and 2015 [32,33]. A decrease in precipitation between 1998 and 2018 was observed in the south of Romania [34]. According to the results of projections by regional climate models within the framework of the EURO-CORDEX project, the RCP8.5 scenario projected a decrease in annual precipitation in the Mediterranean and southern Europe by the middle of the 21st century.…”

Evaluation by Flash GC Electronic Nose of the Effect of Combinations of Yeasts and Nutrients on the Aromatic Profiles of Feteasca Regala Wines after Two Years of Storage

“…As seen in Table 2, the grapes had high sugar content at harvest; therefore, the wines produced by fermentation with the selected yeasts reached concentrations of alcohol over 15% v/v, which is unusual for the Feteasca regala variety. However, this phenomenon is encountered more and more often in conjunction with the climatic changes observed in Bucharest [46]. Due to this high sugar content at harvest (26.5° Brix), the Control wine, produced with the yeasts naturally occurring on the grapes, was not fermented to dryness, as the fermentation stopped at a level of about 36 g/L reducing sugars, the result being a halfdry wine with a lower alcoholic strength of 13.4% v/v.…”