14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences maintain that, according to their investigations, climate change is bound to drastically transform the wine industry.
The specialists predict that, all things considered, major shifts in the wine industry will take place within the following 40 years.
These shifts will basically come down to the fact that most of the vineyards that wine enthusiasts are all too familiar with will either move north or will set up camp at higher altitudes.
According to Mongabay, these changes in the geography of the wine industry will translate into large-scale environmental impacts.
This is because the business of setting up new vineyards is bound to go hand in hand with habitat loss and biodiversity declines.
“Vineyard establishment involves removal of native vegetation, typically followed by deep plowing, fumigation with methyl bromide or other soilsterilizing chemicals, and the application of fertilizers and fungicides,” the researchers reportedly wrote in their paper.
“Mature, producing vineyards have low habitat value for native vertebrates and invertebrates, and are visited more often by nonnative species,” they went on to argue.
Apart from its compelling the wine industry to rethink the area cultivated for grapes, climate change is expected to cause said industry to put increased pressure on freshwater sources.
As the researchers warn in their paper, “In a warming climate, water use may increase as vineyard managers attempt to cool grapes on the vine to reduce quality loss from heat stress and to reduce drought stress. Potential damage to freshwater environments is generally highest where water is already scarce.”
The scientists who pieced together this report concerning how climate change and global warming will impact on the wine industry now up and running worldwide explain that, according to several scenarios they analyzed, western North American and northern Europe are the regions most likely to witness an increase in their wine-growing areas.
On the other hand, Chile, Australia and even the Mediterranean Europe are expected to lose a considerable number of the vineyards they currently house.