Climate change projections in serbian wine-growing regions

Changes in bioclimatic indices in wine-growing region of Serbia are analyzed under the RCP 8.5 IPCC scenario. Results of a global climate model are dynamically downscaled on a horizontal resolution of about 8 km, using a regional model NMMB for a period 1971-2100. Statistical bias correction of regional climate model’s daily outputs of precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature are done for an entire territory of Serbia, using a dataset of daily observation on a regular 8 km grid. Four of bioclimatic indices widely used in viticulture were calculated from the observations in the period 1971-2000 and from the bias corrected model output for two periods in the future, 2011-2040 and 2071-2100.

Results show temperature increase, especially during the vegetation period. By the end of the century precipitation amount during the growing season will significantly drop, alongside with a change of the intramural precipitation distribution towards the Mediterranean climate characteristics. Consequently, climate characteristics of Serbian wine-growing regions will drastically change towards a very warm and moderately dry climate categories.