Leveraging the grapevine drought response to increase vineyard sustainability

Abstract

Climate change will likely increase the risk of drought because of increased temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, and growers are already struggling to adapt. This is apparent in the increased use of irrigation in traditionally rain-fed regions, which threatens environmental sustainability (Costa et al., 2016). In a water scarce future where irrigation cannot be universally implemented, the use of more drought tolerant varieties and vineyard designs can provide a more cost effective and sustainable solution (van Leeuwen et al., 2019).