Aim
Eurasian grapevine (Vitis vinifera), one of the most important fruit crops worldwide, diverged from its wild and currently endangered relative (V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris) about 10’000 years ago. In the 19th century, detrimental phylloxera and disease outbreaks in Europe forced grapevine cultivation to use American Vitis species as rootstocks, which have now become naturalized in Europe and are starting to colonize similar habitats to the wild grapevine. Accordingly, wild grapevine has now two additional threats: the expansion of vineyards and invasive rootstocks. Furthermore, climate change is expected to have significant impacts on the distribution of all grapevines in Europe. In this study, we quantified the distributional and bioclimatic overlap between the wild relative and the taxa associated to the viticulture, under current and future climate.
Location
Europe, North America
Methods
The distributions of wild Eurasian grapevine, cultivated Eurasian grapevine, and five American vine species used in rootstock breeding programs were associated to climate variables to model their bioclimatic niches. These ecological niche models were used to quantify the spatial and bioclimatic overlap between these seven Vitis taxa in Europe.
Results
Niche and spatial overlap is high between the wild, cultivated, and rootstock grapevines, suggesting that existing conflicts between vineyards and wild grapevine conservation may be further complicated by naturalized rootstocks outcompeting the wild grapevine, especially under future scenarios of climate change. In the hottest scenario, only 76.1% of the current distribution of the Eurasian grapevine remains in suitable area.
Main Conclusions
As wild grapevine may ultimately provide a valuable gene pool for adapting viticulture to a changing world, these findings demonstrate the need for improved management of the wild grapevine and its natural habitat, to counteract the harmful effects of global change on the wild relatives of viticulture.