Abstract
Grapevines are highly sensitive to environmental conditions, with variability in weather and climate (particularly temperature) having a significant influence on wine quality, quantity and style. Improved knowledge of spatial and temporal variations in climate and their impact on grapevine response allows better decision-making to help maintain a sustainable wine industry in the context of medium to long term climate change. This paper describes recent research into the application of mesoscale weather and climate models that aims to improve our understanding of climate variability at high spatial (1 km and less) and temporal (hourly) resolution within vineyard regions of varying terrain complexity. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been used to simulate the weather and climate in the complex terrain of the Marlborough region of New Zealand. The performance of the WRF model in reproducing the temperature variability across vineyard regions is assessed through comparison with automatic weather stations. Coupling the atmospheric model with bioclimatic indices and phenological models (e.g. Huglin, cool nights, Grapevine Flowering Véraison model) also provides useful insights into grapevine response to spatial variability of climate during the growing season, as well as assessment of spatial variability in the optimal climate conditions for specific grape varieties.
Highlights
It is well known that the temporal and spatial variability of weather and climate within vineyard regions has an important influence on grapevine response and wine production
By coupling the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model output with bioclimatic indices and phenological models it is possible to provide a spatial analysis of the suitability of a vineyard region to a range of different grapevine varieties
The influence of the complex terrain of the region is clearly evident in all three maps, with altitude and distance from sea having an important influence on the thermal environment of the region
Summary
It is well known that the temporal and spatial variability of weather and climate within vineyard regions has an important influence on grapevine response and wine production (quality and quantity). Physics-based mesoscale atmospheric numerical models are tools that can be used to provide a good understanding of the finescale variability of weather and climate across a vineyard area, even in regions of complex terrain (Bonnardot and Cautenet, 2009; Soltanzadeh et al, 2016) These models have been used to address a range of other applied problems, including dust and air pollution dispersion, wild fire behaviour and wind energy resource assessment (Purcell and Gilbert, 2015 ; Alizadeh Choobari et al, 2012; Simpson et al, 2013; Sturman et al, 2011; Titov et al, 2007)
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