32 OCTOBER 2016 URGED TO ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE Current and future adaptation strategies will be crucial for the Kiwi wine industry in the face of climate change, and effective action will require a combination of disciplines, technologies and approaches. Viticulture lecturer Dr Amber Parker of Lincoln University, who recently joined 160 scientists from around the globe at the ‘ClimWine2016: ClimWine, Sustainable grape and wine production in the context of climate change’ conference held in France, says compressed wine harvests and increased sugar concentration in grapes at harvest time are just two of the significant issues facing wine growers as grapevine phenology advances. Parker, who is exploring changes to the lifecycle (phenology) of grapevines in response to temperature, says solutions to adapt to current advances in grape phenology may include changing varieties or areas in which grapes are planted, or using management techniques to delay ripening on existing vineyards. Management techniques may include late pruning, canopy trimming or the application of plant growth regulators. Parker has completed research investigating canopy trimming and yield manipulation. “If we can start to understand how much we can delay phenology via changing varieties or canopy management techniques, then we can consider the best practice to negate the impact of increased temperatures due to climate change on the grapevine lifecycle,” she says. “This will hopefully provide us with options in winegrowing regions in New Zealand and abroad to adapt to the climate of the future.” Her research on canopy trimming - carried out during her PhD under the supervision of Dr Mike Trought from Plant and Food Research, Dr Rainer Hofmann of Lincoln University and Professor Cornelis van Leeuwen of Bordeaux Sciences Agro - was based on a case study of Pinot noir and Sauvignon blanc vines. Results showed that trimming shortly after the fruit set delayed the onset of ripening (véraison) for both varieties and slowed the rate of soluble solids accumulation. Véraison was nearly a week later and caused a larger delay in the time of harvest (if harvesting on target sugars). Trimming at véraison also slowed sugar accumulation and delayed harvest, but to a lesser degree. No differences were measured in the acidity of the grapes, and future studies GOOD NEWS IN WINE New Zealand’s wine industry will receive $6 million in Government research funding to aid the development of a new tool to assist the industry with better grape yield forecasting. Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce says the initiative will be funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) 2016 Endeavour Fund over five years, co-funded by New Zealand Winegrowers and led by Lincoln Agritech. “The new research programme aims to develop a tool to deliver much more accurate yield estimations,” says NZ Winegrowers general manager of research and innovation Dr Simon Hooker. "This will benefit the industry by supporting better crop management, smoother processing and market forecasting based on capacity to supply.” Lincoln Agritech chief executive Peter Barrowclough says “The game-changing innovation will be that growers can accurately assess differences in yield not only between regions or vineyards but, with new sensor technologies, will also be able to assess differences between blocks and rows. will consider how canopy trimming affects the balance of sugar, acid concentration and other metabolites, and how this influences the final wine, Parker says. The delays achieved by canopy management could be implemented as an adaptation practice to delay the harvest window and avoid ripening grapes in the warmer part of summer, which would have different consequences on the berry and wine composition than to maintain current timing of harvest. Since the completion of her PhD, Parker has been involved in a three-year study project funded by the Ministry of Primary Industries combining climate models and grapevine phenological models to characterise flowering of Sauvignon blanc in the Marlborough region. This was the first implementation in New Zealand of phenology models that Parker has developed with European collaborators. Application so far has been to predict the timing of flowering of Sauvignon blanc in the different grape growing areas of the Marlborough region. Phenological modelling research is of great interest internationally, and Parker has ongoing involvement in international grapevine modelling programmes. In particular, in the Northern Hemisphere grape-growers are already recording advances in phenology and considering adaptation strategies as a result of observed increases in temperature. NEW ZEALAND WINE INDUSTRY Dr Amber Parker of Lincoln University
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