Exploring high throughput secondary trait phenomics to improve grapevine breeding

Traditional viticulture areas have experienced in the last decades an intensification of field practices, linked to an increased use of fertilisers and phytosanitary products, and to a more intensive mechanization and uniformization of the landscape. This change in management has sometimes led to higher rates of soil erosion andloss of soil structure, fertility decline, groundwater contamination, and to an increased pressure of pests and diseases. Additionally, intensification usually leads to a simplification of landscapes, of particular concern in prestigious wine grape regions where the economical revenue encourages the conversion of land use from natural habitats to high value wine grape production. To revert this trend, it is necessary that growers implement actions that promote biodiversity in their vineyards. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the implementation of cover crops, vegetational corridors, dry stone walls and vineyard biodiversity hotspots estimated through the study of arthropods. The work has been carried out in four vineyards in Rioja Alavesa belonging to Ostatu winery, where these infrastructures were implemented in 2020. The presence and diversity of arthropods was studied by capturing them at different times in the season and at different distances from the infrastructure using pit-fall traps in the soil and yellow, white and blue chromatic traps at the canopy level. This is a preliminary study in which all adult insects were sorted to the taxonomic level of order and Coleoptera were classified to morphospecies. The results obtained show that there is a relationship between the basic characteristics of the vineyard and the arthropods captured, with a positive effect, although also dependent on the vineyard, of the presence of infrastructure.

Long-term use of copper fungicides causes increased accumulation of total copper in the surface layer of vineyard soils. Many of authors has researched the anthropogenic influx of copper in such soils, which can result in environmental risks.

The way to manage the vineyard soils has certainly changed in Spain during the last years. Traditionally, the vineyards were tilled, but this growing technique has been replaced in some vineyards by the bare soil with herbicide

Struck flint/struck match/gun smoke/mineral aroma is considered desirable in some styles of wines, with this character sometimes evident in wines such as Burgundian Chablis and cooler climate barrel-fermented Australian Chardonnay.

Alcoholic fermentation conducted by microorganism is a key step in the production of wine. In this process, interactions between different species of yeast are widely described but their mechanisms are still poorly understood. The interactions studied in wine are mainly between Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces species. Therefore, little is known about the mechanisms of interactions