About

Average global temperatures projections show a rise of 3–5 °C by 2100. A changing climate can result in unprecedented extreme weather and climate events, affecting ecosystem processes such as primary production and plant species distribution and abundance. It may also alter plant diseases since the rate at which pathogens evolve and overcome host resistance may increase.

Abiotic factors such as temperature affect host susceptibility to pathogens and pathogen aggressiveness. Therefore, interactions between plant resistance traits and abiotic stress tolerance may represent the most substantial impact of climate change (CC) on plant productivity.

The objectives of VitiSmart are:

• Strengthen climate change models on grapevine crop systems by understanding how climate change will affect cropping systems (as opposed to crop productivity).
• Improve both preventive and curative strategies for more grapevine cultivars tolerant to pathogen under a CC context.
• Understand the molecular and physiological pathways underlying the interaction between grape cultivars/beneficial microbial agents/pathogens/climate change.
• Facilitate interdisciplinary research integrating innovative adaptive strategies with socio-economical aspects of grapevine production.
• Support the European grapevine growers by matching consumer demands for top quality grapes and food safety. 

Results

• Vineyard management to face effects of climate change.
• Grapevine genetic resources exploitation to screen resilient cultivars.
• Bioprospection and characterisation of beneficial microbes effective against grapevine diseases under climate change.
• Molecular, biochemical and physiological investigation of the intricate networks underlying the tripartite interaction under climate change.
• Socio-Economic impacts.
• Technology Transfer.