Summary:
Grapevines are among the plant species with greater genetic variability, reflected in the several thousand of varieties grown worldwide, having high adaptability to different soils, climates and different capacities to deal with abiotic stress. Grapevine genetic variability is one of the most important resources for adaptation to abiotic stresses previewed by climate scenarios for the near future. In this work we present the methodologies applied in a 5 years research project, WineClimAdapt, started in 2018. The research main goals are in a first phase to evaluate the resistance of 200 varieties to abiotic stress, namely thermal and drought stress, applying recent tools for a time integrated characterization at field and whole plant level and, in a second phase, to evaluate the agronomic and enological behavior, namely in phenolic composition and aroma percursors. Two ampelographic fields with contrasting environments, in dry and very hot conditions (Herdade do Esporão, Alentejo, South Interior of Portugal) and in temperate conditions (INIAV –Dois Portos, Estremadura, Central Coast of Portugal) will be used. The ampelographic fields will be characterized accordingly to: (i) crop phenology - used to examine the cultivars phenological dynamics using phenological timing and growth intervals to evaluate cultivars adaptability to climate change; (ii) stable isotope signatures - applied at plant level to develop an "WUEtool" to quantify grapevine cultivar resistance to abiotic stress, namely water stress; (iii) aerial thermal imaging - applied to evaluate water stress intensity, and (iv) fluorescence technology - applied in field non-destructive measurements to study the impact of abiotic stresses in the kinetics of phenolic maturation. Furthermore, the results obtained will be available for molecular biology to assess the potential of Genome Wide Association to assist the study of grapevine alleles associated to heat and water deficit stress tolerance and to disclose allelic variants highly associated with the tolerance to heat and water deficit stress. In general, it is expected to obtain a deeper understanding of grapevine physiological behavior, crucial to improve our capacity to predict variety performance in future climates and to characterize, evaluate, compare and rank genotypes for breeding programs.
Keywords:
Climate and climate change; farming / forestry competitiveness and diversification; Viticulture; Adaptation to climate change; Genetic resources; Variety
Funding Institution:
European Union; PDR2020; Portugal 2020
Partners:
Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária IP; Esporão, S.A.; Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa; Viticert - Ass. Nac. De Viveiristas Viticolas Prod. De Mat. Certificado; Viveiros Plansel-Plantas Seleccionadas,Lda.; Universidade de Évora; Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro; Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB); RESUMOPARCELA - Associação De Viticultores (RP); Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa.
