Terroir 1996 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Zoning like base instrument for the agronomist’s work in vineyard

Zoning like base instrument for the agronomist’s work in vineyard

Abstract

Ad una prima analisi l’interesse dimostrato dal settore produttivo nei confronti della zonazione vitivinicola è da ricondursi al fatto che dopo i primi approcci puramente accademici, la zonazione è diventata un fondamentale strumento operativo. Questo è avvenuto allorquando, in tali progetti è entrato a far parte del gruppo di lavoro, assumendo altresì un ruolo strategico, anche il fruitore del lavoro stesso e cioè il tecnico, colui che trasferisce in campo le informazioni prodotte e le applica nell’attività giornaliera.
Ecco quindi che il gruppo di lavoro già articolato e complesso per sua natura si è arricchito di una nuova figura che ha portato due grandi benefici.
Il primo luogo è stata introdotta nella filosofia del progetto una logica puramente operativa ed applicativa delle informazioni prodotte dal progetto cercando di tradurre la grande massa di informazioni prodotte in elementi utili e pratici, prontamente travasabili alla realtà produttiva. Secondariamente vi è stato un avvicinamento fra due mondi distanti. L’uno, il viticoltore per sua natura scettico nei confronti della ricerca viticola e delle innovazioni, l’altro, la ricerca scientifica che spesso rischia di perdere il legame con la base produttiva e le sue esigenze.
Agli inizi degli anni Novanta, l’Unità Operativa di Pedoclimatologia dell’Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige (Tn) ha proposto, un modello innovativo che ha previsto in primis il coinvolgimento diretto e fattivo del destinatario della zonazione, rendendolo partecipe non solo in qualità di co-finanziatore dell’opera, ma investendolo di responsabilità tecnica e strategica prima, durante e dopo la realizzazione del progetto. I
Esempio di questa filosofia di lavoro è la zonazione delle Valli di Cembra e dell’Adige la cui pubblicazione successiva (Falcetti et al.1998) ha dato un chiaro segno di quelle che sono le potenzialità di un siffatto progetto; ha dimostrato come la conoscenza del territorio di produzione diventi uno strumento decisionale indispensabile per chi si trova nella necessità di gestire la vigna in modo razionale e finalizzato ad un preciso obiettivo enologico.
Dopo questo primo progetto che ha indicato una nuova strada metodologica da percorrere, numerosi sono stati in Italia i lavori improntati secondo tale modus operandi con il chiaro intento di fornire delle semplici indicazioni tecniche ai viticoltori ed ai tecnici operanti in una data area viticola (Fiorini et Failla, 1998; Colugnati et al, 1998, De Biasi et al, 1999).
Testimonianza della positività dei risultati ottenuti e della crescita di consapevolezza del settore verso tali progetti è il fatto che, se inizialmente furono gli Istituti di Ricerca a promuovere le zonazioni, ora sono le aziende che le commissionano.
Scopo del presente contributo è non aggiungere nulla di nuovo sulle metodiche scientifiche che stanno alla base della zonazione, ma presentare la testimonianza concreta di chi si trova ad affrontare in vigna una serie di scelte importanti e che dalla zonazione riceve supporto tecnico importante al processo decisionale operativo di campo.
Si proporranno alcuni casi di processo decisionale di campo supportato dai dati della zonazione adeguatamente trattati, gestiti e proposti attraverso lo strumento informatico specifico, noto come Sistema Informativo Territoriale o G.I.S. (Geographic Information System).

Related articles…

Use of multispectral satellite for monitoring vine water status in mediterranean areas

The development of new generations of multispectral satellites such as Sentinel-2 opens possibilities as to vine water status assessment (Cohen et al., 2019). Based on a three years field campaign, a model of Stem Water Potential (SWP) estimation on vine using four satellite bands in Red, Red-Edge, NIR and SWIR domains was developed (Laroche-Pinel et al., 2021). The model relies on SWP field measures done using a pressure chamber (Scholander et al., 1965), which is a common, robust and precise method to assess vine water status (Acevedo-Opazo et al., 2008). The model was mainly developed from from SWP measures on Syrah N (Laroche Pinel E., 2021).

A large scale monitoring was organized in different vineyards in the Mediterranean region in 2021. 10 varieties amongst the most represented in this area were monitored (Cabernet sauvignon N, Chardonnay B, Cinsault N, Grenache N, Merlot N, Mourvèdre N, Sauvignon B, Syrah N, Vermentino B, Viognier B). The model was used to produce water status maps from Sentinel-2 images, starting from the beginning of June (fruit set) up to September (harvest). The average estimated SWP for each vine was compared to actual field SWP measures done by wine growers or technicians during usual monitoring of irrigation programs. The correlations between mean estimated SWP and mean measured SWP were at the same level than expected by the model. (Laroche Pinel, 2021) The general SWP kinetics were comparable. The estimated SWP would have led to same irrigation decisions concerning the date of first irrigation in comparison with measured SWP.

Acevedo-Opazo, C., Tisseyre, B., Ojeda, H., Ortega-Farias, S., Guillaume, S. (2008). Is it possible to assess the spatial variability of vine water status? OENO One, 42(4), 203.
Cohen, Y., Gogumalla, P., Bahat, I., Netzer, Y., Ben-Gal, A., Lenski, I., … Helman, D. (2019). Can time series of multispectral satellite images be used to estimate stem water potential in vineyards? In Precision agriculture ’19, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, pp. 445–451.
Laroche-Pinel, E., Duthoit, S., Albughdadi, M., Costard, A. D., Rousseau, J., Chéret, V., & Clenet, H. (2021). Towards vine water status monitoring on a large scale using sentinel-2 images. remote sensing, 13(9), 1837.
Laroche-Pinel,E. (2021). Suivi du statut hydrique de la vigne par télédétection hyper et multispectrale. Thèse INP Toulouse, France.
Scholander, P.F., Bradstreet, E.D., Hemmingsen, E.A., & Hammel, H.T. (1965). Sap pressure in vascular plants: Negative hydrostatic pressure can be measured in plants. Science, 148(3668), 339–346.

Simulating climate change impact on viticultural systems in historical and emergent vineyards

Global climate change affects regional climates and hold implications for wine growing regions worldwide. Although winegrowers are constantly adapting to internal and external factors, it seems relevant to develop tools, which will allow them to better define actual and future agro-climatic potentials. Within this context, we develop a modelling approach, able to simulate the impact of environmental conditions and constraints on vine behaviour and to highlight potential adaptation strategies according to different climate change scenarios. Our modeling approach, named SEVE (Simulating Environmental impacts on Viticultural Ecosystems), provides a generic modeling framework for simulating grapevine growth and berry ripening under different conditions and constraints (slope, aspect, soil type, climate variability…) as well as production strategies and adaptation rules according to climate change scenarios. Each activity is represented by an autonomous agent able to react and adapt its reaction to the variability of environmental constraints. Using this model, we have recently analyzed the evolution of vineyards’ exposure to climatic risks (frost, pathogen risk, heat wave) and the adaptation strategies potentially implemented by the winegrowers. This approach, implemented for two climate change scenarios, has been initiated in France on traditional (Loire Valley) and emerging (Brittany) vineyards. The objective is to identify the time horizons of adaptations and new opportunities in these two regions. Carried out in collaboration with wine growers, this approach aims to better understand the variability of climate change impacts at local scale in the medium and long term.

Ecophysiological performance of Vitis rootstocks under water stress

The use of rootstocks tolerant to soil water deficit is an interesting strategy to cope with limited water availability. Currently, several nurseries are breeding new genotypes, but the physiological basis of its responses under water stress are largely unknown. To this end, an ecophysiological assessment of the conventional 110-Richter (110R) and SO4, and the new M1 and M4 rootstocks was carried out in potted ungrafted plants. During one season, these Vitis genotypes were grown under greenhouse conditions and subjected to two water regimes, well-watered and water deficit. Water potentials of plants under water deficit down to < -1.4 MPa, and net photosynthesis (AN) <5 μmol m-2 s-1 did not cause leaf oxidative stress damage compared to well-watered conditions in any of the genotypes. The antioxidant capacity was sufficient to neutralize the mild oxidative stress suffered. Under both treatments, gravimetric differences in daily water use were observed among genotypes, leading to differences in the biomass of root, shoot and leaf. Under well-watered conditions, SO4 and 110R were the most vigorous and M1 and M4 the least. However, under water stress, SO4 exhibited the greatest reduction in biomass while M4 showed the lowest. Remarkably, under these conditions, SO4 reached the least negative stem water potential (Ψstem), while M1 reduced stomatal conductance (gs) and AN the most. In addition, SO4 and M1 genotypes also showed the highest and lowest hydraulic conductance values, respectively. Our results suggest that there are differences in water use regulation among genotypes, not only attributed to differences in stomatal regulation or intrinsic water use efficiency at the leaf level. Therefore, because no differences in canopy-to-root ratio were achieved, it is hypothesized that xylem vessel anatomical differences may be driving the reported differences among rootstocks performance. Results demonstrate that each Vitis rootstock differs in its ecophysiological responses under water stress.

Mobile device to induce heat-stress on grapevine berries

Studying heat stress response of grapevine berries in the field often relies on weather conditions during the growing season. We constructed a mobile heating device, able to induce controlled heat stress on grapes in vineyards. The heater consisted of six 150 W infrared lamps mounted in a profile frame. Heating power of the lamps could be controlled individually by a control unit consisting of a single board computer and six temperature sensors to reach a pre-set temperature. The heat energy applied to individual berries within a cluster decreases by the squared distance to the heat source, enabling the establishment of temperature profiles within individual clusters. These profiles can be measured by infrared thermography once a steady state has been reached. Radiant flux density received by a berry depending on the distance was calculated based on a view factor and measured lamp surface temperature and resulted to 665 Wm-2 at 7cm. Infrared thermography of the fruit surface was in good agreement with measurements conducted with a thermocouple inserted at epidermis level. In combination with infrared thermography, the presented device offers possibilities for a wide range of applications like phenotyping for heat tolerance in the field to proceed in the understanding of the complex response of plants to heat stress. Sunburn necrosis symptoms were artificially induced with the aid of the device for cv. Bacchus and cv. Sylvaner in the 2020 and 2021 growing season. Threshold temperatures for sunburn induction (LT5030min) were derived from temperature data of single berries and visual sunburn assessment, applying logistic regression. A comparison of threshold temperatures for the occurrence of sunburn necrosis confirmed the higher susceptibility of cv. Bacchus. The lower susceptibility of cv. Sylvaner did not seem to be related to its phenolic composition, rendering a thermoprotective role of berry phenolic compounds unlikely.

Impact of climate change on the viticultural climate of the Protected Designation of Origin “Jumilla” (SE Spain)

Protected Designation of Origin “Jumilla” (PDO Jumilla) is located in the Spanish provinces of Albacete and Murcia, in the South-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, where most of the models predict a severe impact of climate change in next decades. PDO Jumilla covers an area of 247,054 hectares, of which more than 22,000 hectares