Innovation in grapevine water status monitoring and drought adaptation: leaf angle and temperature regulation

¹ Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Dipartimento delle Culture Europee e del Mediterraneo, via Lanera, 20 75100 Matera, Italy
² ALSIA – Centro Ricerche Metapontum Agrobios, S.S. Ionica 106, km 448,2, 75010 Metaponto, Italy
³ Équipe de recherches agronomiques, Agronutrition, 3 avenue de l’Orchidée, Parc Activestre, 31390 Carbonne, France

^* Corresponding author: vitale.nuzzo@unibas.it

Abstract

Increase of frequency, duration, and intensity of drought and heatwave and related water and heat crops stress are among the principal effects of climate change. This paper reports: (i) the effect of calcite particle film (CaPF) as a mitigation strategy against heat stress in well-watered (WW) or in drought-stress (D) conditions; and (ii) response of leaf angle variation to stomatal conductance changes induced by drought stress of Aleatico grapevine cultivar. Results have showed that CaPF, under WW conditions, reduced leaf temperature, and increased gas exchange, but, under very severe water stress, CaPF treatment was ineffective. Leaf angle ranged from 70° (WW vines) to 100° (drought stressed vines) and showed a good fit (R² =0.81) with stomatal conductance within the range of 0.25 – 0.05 mol m^-2 s^–1 proving it might be a reliable proxy of vine water status.