Climate change potential effects on grapevine bioclimatic indices: A case study for the Portuguese demarcated Douro Region (Portugal)

¹ Department of Environment and Planning (DAO) & Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Aveiro University, 3810–193 Aveiro, Portugal
² Mountain Research Centre (CIMO), School of Agriculture, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300–253 Bragança, Portugal
³ Physics Department & CESAM, Aveiro University, 3810–193 Aveiro, Portugal
⁴ Association for the Development of Viticulture in the Douro Region (ADVID), 5050 106 Peso da Régua, Portugal
⁵ Department of Engineering and Agricultural Sciences, University of Leon, 24071 Portugal Avenue 41, León, Spain

^a dblancoward@ua.pt

Abstract

In this work, bioclimatic parameters and indices relevant to the grapevine are estimated for the years 2000 (recent-pat), 2049 (medium-term future) and 2097 (long-term future), based on very high resolution (1 km × 1 km) MPI-WRF RCP8.5 climate simulations. The selected parameters and indices are the mean temperature during the grapevine growing season period (April to October, Tgs), the cumulative rainfall during the grapevine growing season period (Pgs), the Winkler index (WI), the Huglin heliothermic index (HI), the night cold index (CI) and the dryness index (DI). In general, a significant increase in mean temperature during the grapevine growing season period is observed, together with a significant decrease in precipitation. The recent-past WI is associated with the production of high-quality wines; the higher values predicted for the future represent intensive production of wines of intermediate quality. The HI shows the passage of a grapevine growing region considered as temperate-warm to a warm category of higher helio-thermicity. The recent-past CI indicates very cool conditions (associated with quality wines), while in the future there is a tendency for temperate or warmer nights. Finally, DI indicates an increase in water stress considered already high under the recent-past climate conditions. These results point to an increased climatic stress on the Douro region wine production and increased vulnerability of its vine varieties, providing evidence to support strategies aimed to preserve the high-quality wines in the region and their typicality in a sustainable way.