Our cluster will synergize to define novel strategies that in the long term can address the impact of climate change on wine production in four major aims. Importantly, given the sensitive nature of wine production to climate-induced changes, we expect our research will apply to emerging and future issues in other agricultural systems.
1. Cold and heat-stress, drought, and smoke-stress mitigation: Assessing the impact of climate-change related events such as cold stress, heat stress, drought, and forest fires on the soil microbiome, grapevine physiology and pathology, grape composition/quality and developing adaptation strategies to optimize grape and wine quality under these stressful conditions is critical for the future of wine production.
2. Grapevine pathogen and pest reduction: Developing energy saving alternatives (biological control agents, entomopathogenic fungi, plant-derived secondary metabolites, repellents, antiviral compounds, and sustainable viticultural practices) to chemical pesticides that are often used to control diseases and pests is important as their incidence is predicted to increase due to climate change.
3. Remediation of poor berry quality by fermentation with diverse yeast species: Poor berry quality due to extreme heat (high sugar levels) and wildfire (smoke-taint) is already of great concern to the wine industry. Using diverse yeast strains and species to alter the wine produced by fermentation (reduce alcohol levels or prevent smoke-taint expression) is an attractive option to remediate this problem.
4. Wine region sustainability and consumer perception: Measuring and mitigating vineyard and winery greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will require working with industry partners to explore options such as strategic use of cover crops, biological control agents, plant-derived metabolites and essential oils instead of agrochemicals for plant protection. Understanding the consumer perception of smoke-taint in wines and the willingness of consumers to explore new wine varieties in the context of climate change is key for the wine economy.
Wine fermentation
Grapevine & Vineyards
