Grapevine yield has been historically overlooked, assuming a strong trade-off between grape yield and wine quality. At present, menaced by climate change, many vineyards in Southern France are far from the quality label threshold, becoming grapevine yield-gaps a major subject of concern. Although yield-gaps are well studied in arable crops, we know very little about grapevine yield-gaps. In the present study, we analysed the environmental component of grapevine yield-gaps linked to climate and soil resources in the Languedoc Roussillon. We used SAFRAN data and IGP Pays d’Oc wine yields from 2010 to 2018. We selected climate and soil indicators proving to have a significant effect on average wine yield-gaps at the municipality scale. The most significant factors of grapevine yield were the Soil Available Water Capacity; followed by the Huglin Index and the Climatic Dryness Index. The Days of Frost; the Soil pH; and the Very Hot Days were also significant. Then, we clustered geographical zones presenting similar indicators, facilitating the identification of resources yield-gaps. We discussed the number of zones with the experts of IGP Pays d’Oc label, obtaining 7 zones with similar limitations for grapevine yield. Finally, we analysed the main resources causing yield-gaps and the grapevine varieties planted on each zone. Mapping grapevine resource yield-gaps are the first stage for understanding grapevine yield-gaps at the regional scale.
Authors: Hugo Fernandez-Mena1,2, Nicolas Guilpart 3, Philippe Lagacherie4, Renan Le Roux5, Mayeul Plaige1, Maxime Dumont1, Marine Gautier1, Jean-Marc Touzard6, Hervé Hannin7 and Christian Gary1
1UMR ABSys, AgroBiodiversified Systems, Montpellier, France
2UMR EMMAH, Modelling of Mediterranean Agroecosystems, Avignon, France
3UFR DISC, Cropping systems of Agroparistech, Paris, France
4UMR LISAH, Interactions in Soils and Water in Agroecosystems, Montpellier, France
5U. Agroclim, Agriculture and Climate, Avignon, France
6UMR Innovation, Montpellier, France
7UMR MoISA, Markets, Institutions and Strategies in Agriculture, Montpellier, France
Email: hugo.fernandez-mena@inrae.fr
Keywords: grapevine yield-gaps, climate and soil indicators, vineyard regional mapping, yield declining
