The role of soil temperature in mediterranean vineyards in a climate change context

Abstract

The wine sector faces important challenges related to sustainability issues and the impact of climate change. More frequent extreme climate conditions (high temperatures coupled with severe drought periods) have become a matter of concern for the wine sector of typically dry and warm regions, such as the Mediterranean European countries. Soil is a natural resource crucial to sustaining the equilibrium of ecosystems, economic growth and people’s prosperity worldwide. In viticulture, soils have a great influence on crop performance (growth, yield and berry composition) and wine quality, as the soil is a central component of the terroir. Soil temperature (ST) affects multiple physical, chemical and biological processes occurring in the soil as well as in plants growing on it. Moreover, the impact of ST is stronger in row crops such as grapevine, since it favors soil exposition to radiation and favors evapotranspiration. The role of ST on crop performance remains poorly described, especially under more extreme climatic conditions. Therefore, a better understanding of the impact of ST in vineyards (vine plants, weeds, microbiota) can help to better manage and predict vineyards’ performance, plant-soil relations and soil microbiome under more extreme climate conditions. In addition, soil and plant thermal data can be integrated into Decision Support Systems (DSS) to support vineyard management. In this paper, the role of ST in Mediterranean vineyards is reviewed namely in terms of its effect on vines’ ecophysiological and agronomical performance and its relation with soil properties and soil management strategies. The potential use of imaging approaches, e.g. thermography, is discussed as an alternative or complementary tool to assess ST and vertical canopy temperature profiles/gradients in vineyards. Soil management strategies to mitigate the negative impact of climate change, optimize ST variation and crop thermal microclimate (leaf and berry) are proposed and discussed, with emphasis on Mediterranean systems.

Mulching techniques impact on soil chemical and biological characteristics affecting physiology of lemon trees

“…The soil temperature recorded in both the upper and lower soil layers, as it was expected, increased in July respect to March and May (Costa et al 2023). It is a factor that depended on the physical soil properties, it has been reported that higher amplitude of the daily temperature has been related to the sand and clay composition in the soil (Krapez et al 2012;Sremac et al 2021).…”

Monitoring of Seasonal Under-Vine CO2 Effluxes in a Vineyard under Different Fertilization Practices

“…This study focused on the effects of two fertilizer programs-organo-mineral and chemical-on under-vine TSR in a vineyard because it has been recognized that TSR values in under-rows are higher than those in inter-rows in a vineyard [26]. In addition, TSR is an indicator of overall biological activity and a descriptor of soil quality that is strongly linked to agricultural soil management practices, such as tillage and irrigation, but also to abiotic factors (e.g., temperature and moisture) and chemical and physical soil traits [26,47,48]. The soil of the tested vineyard could be classified as clay-loam soil and poor in terms of SOC, and in fact, all the soil profiles could be characterized by very low SOM values (optimal values are between 2 and 3%) [49][50][51], which underlined low fertility conditions.…”

Predicting the canopy conductance to water vapor of grapevines using a biophysical model in a hot and arid climate

“…To optimize the utilization of available solar radiation and facilitate vineyard management, grapevines are typically arranged in rows. This configuration results in a low canopy profile, which significantly increases the portion of soil directly exposed to evaporation (Costa et al, 2019;Costa et al, 2023). As the grapevines reach their maximum vegetative growth during the veraison stage, soil water availability rapidly diminishes, thus requiring irrigation intervention.…”