European vines suffer from climate change. The European wine is the one that until now has suffered the worst impacts of global warming, with an increase in temperatures and a greater number of heat waves, shows an international study published on Wednesday, even if all wine regions are suffering.
When crossing climatic data (flowering, outbreaks, before harvest, etc.) and reactions according to the growth stages applied to more than 500 grape varieties, the authors could compare the effects of the disturbances of a region to the world. Result: Europe has suffered the most massive disorders, with days at more than 35 ° C in “significant resurgence” and the highest temperatures at the time of maturation, reveals the analysis published in the American magazine PLOS Climate.
In contrast, North America has experienced more moderate increases, at average and extreme temperatures. South America shows results similar to the European situation in terms of average temperatures, but less extreme heat, the study adds, which brought together climatologists, agronomists, environmentalists and genetics of the vine, of France, Spain, the United States and Canada.
Researchers have used in particular the data collected for decades by the experimental unit of the Vassal Domain, administered by the French Agronomic Institute Inrae. Otherwise again, where temperatures could already reach the ends before the increase in heating, the impacts can also be very strong (fires …) with a less spectacular increase in the thermometer, such as in North Africa or Australia.
A very sensitive plant
A global study of the study, the vines must face, above all, an increase in maximum temperatures, much more than a growth in the minimum or the resurgence of cold episodes that would intervene at the wrong time. The Vid is a plant very sensitive to heating and the impact of the weather is already seen in particular in the previous harvest, a higher level of sugar in productions and the appearance of new areas of culture.
“I was very surprised by the level of heating worldwide, but particularly in Europe, where our results clearly show that the growth season has been heated due to climate change linked to human activities,” says the main author, Em Wolkovich, of the University of Columbia British, in Canada.
“When visiting Europe for more than 15 years, I saw the increase in heat waves, but the data and scope of the change facing the cultivators are beyond what I expected, and that gives it to think,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
