Maria Mueller Hipper

Title of Work: 

Study of the Phenological Response of Grapevine Varieties to Climatic Changes in Bordeaux

Abstract:

My research project started at the research group EGFV at the Scientific Institute of Vine and Wine in Villenave d’Ornon, France in March 2023. My internship was within the research project Vitadapt whose goal is to see how the phenological stages of the grapevine plant, budding, flowering, and veraison, as well as grape and wine quality, are affected by increasing temperatures. During my internship, I was tasked with synthesizing past data to create graphics and tables to visualize the trends from the last decade alongside collecting budding, flowering, and nitrogen leaf content data for the 2023 collection period. The project uses Parker’s Grapevine Flowering Véraison (GFV) model to predict the phenological stages of flowering and veraison. My research investigated the advancement of these phenological stages of the 31 vine varieties that the VitAdapt project and the GFV model have in common in the years 2013 to 2022.

Title of Work (IGP Language):  

Étude de la response des cépages aux changements climatiques en Bordelais.

Abstract (IGP Language):

Mon projet de recherche a commencé à EGFV une unité mixte de recherche à l’Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin à Villenave d’Ornon, France en Mars 2023. Mon stage fait partie du projet Vitadapt qui observe les changements de la phénologie de la vigne, le débourrement, la floraison et la véraison. Il examine aussi la qualité des raisins et du vin face à l'augmentation des températures.  Pendant mon stage, j’ai synthétisé les données des années passées, créé des graphiques et tableaux pour qu’on puisse visualiser les tendances, et fait aussi des notations sur le débourrement, la floraison, et le contenu d’azote pour l’année 2023. Le projet utilise le modèle Grapevine Flowering Véraison (GFV) de Parker pour les prédictions de la floraison et la véraison. Mes recherches analysent l’avancement des ces étapes phénologiques des 31 cépages, lesquels Vitadapt et le modèle GFV ont en commun, pendant les années 2013 à 2022.

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript: 

Hello everyone, my name is Maria Mueller Hipper. I did my internship studying the phenological responses of grapevine varieties to climatic changes in Bordeaux. So my two majors are French and Environmental and Sustainability studies. I did my year abroad with the University of Bordeaux, and I did my internship at ISVV, which is the Scientific Institute of Vine and Wine, located in a suburb of Bordeaux called Villenave-D'Ornon. You can see the office building that I was working in most of the time on the left, and then the experimental vineyards that are right behind it on the right. And I spent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning in the vineyard collecting data about plant growth along with the other interns, and then the rest of the time in the office building. And the plot that I was specifically working on is called VitAdapt. It was started back in 2009 and has been collecting data since 2012. And so this year, in 2023, there were two other interns alongside me and we collected the data for the phenology of the plant, which is the annual growth cycle. And so we were specifically looking at budding, flowering and veraison dates. The other two also looked at harvest. And I actually wasn't there for veraison anymore, but I was there for budding and flowering. But my research focused on flowering and verasin. So budding happens in about March. There aren't any models to predict it yet, so not much research can be done with budding because it is quite unpredictable. But budding is an important stage in the phenology of the plant, because if it happens too early, the frost in the mornings, in springtime can kill the buds and thus also kill the plant's ability to create shoots from those buds. And so then the next stage is flowering, which happens in about May or June. And this stage is modeled in something called the GFV model, which also models veraison in comparison to a date that is calculated by adding up all the average temperatures over a year rather than the calendar date, so that the model can be precise in not only Bordeaux, but anywhere in the world, and so that it can work throughout climate change and changing temperatures. And so I was looking at flowering and veraison in comparison to that model, and I found that flowering is occurring earlier every year and veraison is still quite mixed. But flowering, even occurring earlier, means that the grapes are exposed to the sun and the heat for longer, changing that chemical composition of them, and thus also changing the quality of the wine that they will produce. And so this research plays an important role in how vineyards in the region and worldwide will move forward in the face of climate change and how agricultural practices will need to be adapted. If you'd like to hear more about my research or my time abroad, I look forward to seeing you at the summit!

Digital Poster