Climate Change and Plant Phenology: Challenges for Fruit Production

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1156

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, S.P. 6, Lecce-Monteroni, I-73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: viticulture; fruit quality; abiotic stress management; tree crops; cultivar selection; production techniques
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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Interests: tree crops; grapevine; dormancy; budbreak; gene expression; molecular regulation

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Guest Editor
Department of Psychology and Health Sciences, Pegaso University, 80132 Napoli, Italy
Interests: agricultural and food econonomics; agricultural innovation and technology; rural development; resilience; agrifood supply chain management; multi-criteria decision making
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, Via delle Scienze 206, 33100 Udine, Italy
Interests: grapevine; fruit crop dormancy; abiotic stress tolerance; spring frosts; plant physiology; molecular biology

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Guest Editor
Department of Natural Sciences, Higher Normal School of Kouba, Algiers 16308, Algeria
Interests: plant protection; climate change; ecobiology; biocontrol; pollinators health

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Guest Editor
National Research & Development, Institute for Biotechnologies in Horticulture, Stefanesti-Arges, Romania
Interests: viticulture; cultivar selection; abiotic stress management; multiplication; plant breeding; ampelography; production techniques

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is well known that climate change significantly impacts plant phenology. During summertime, the vegetation period can shift, affecting the reproductive cycle (i.e., flowering, veraison, ripening) and inducing changes in the quality of the fruits. Alongside the consequences of the exacerbation of summer stress, winter warming can cause significant damage to bud dormancy, compromising tree crop production. Bud break and, in some cases, flowering during autumn and wintertime have become common in mild winters, and the expected impact on the local economy could be catastrophic.

Thus, new strategies are urgently needed for tree crop management (e.g., pruning systems and/or timing), including considering new fruit trees for cultivation (different species and/or different cultivars) or new regions for tree crop production. Of course, we also need to quantify the socio-economic impact of phenological disfunction on the production sector, setting up strategies to preserve the sustainability of the agricultural sector.

This Special Issue focuses on the effect of climate change on tree crop systems and will include interdisciplinary studies merging agriculture with economy, molecular biology, ecophysiology, and climatology. We encourage research articles studying different economically important tree crops as well as minor/new species from different points of view. All types of articles, such as original research, opinions, and reviews, are welcome.

Dr. Laura Rustioni
Dr. Rachele Falchi
Dr. Giulio Paolo Agnusdei
Dr. Valeria De Rosa
Dr. Mounir Kherroubi
Dr. Daniel Grigorie Dinu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • tree crops
  • phenology
  • temperatures
  • sustainability
  • local economy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 1118 KB  
Article
Grapevine Phenology, Vegetative and Reproductive Characteristics of Vitis vinifera L. cv Chardonnay in the Cape South Coast Region in South Africa
by Erna Hailey Blancquaert, Emile Tomas Majewski, Sam Crauwels, Zhanwu Dai and Daniel Schorn-García
Agriculture 2025, 15(18), 1981; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15181981 - 19 Sep 2025
Viewed by 187
Abstract
Climate change necessitates the exploration of new, cooler viticultural regions globally. Chardonnay is an early ripening variety which is subjected to temperature extremes. This study aimed to investigate the response of Chardonnay in cool climatic regions in the Cape South Coast region of [...] Read more.
Climate change necessitates the exploration of new, cooler viticultural regions globally. Chardonnay is an early ripening variety which is subjected to temperature extremes. This study aimed to investigate the response of Chardonnay in cool climatic regions in the Cape South Coast region of South Africa over two growing seasons in 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 in three commercial vineyards. An evaluation of the climatic, vegetative and reproductive characteristics was performed. Seasonal variation was the biggest driver of the Growing Degree Days (GDD) at the sites. Overall, the 2021–2022 season was warmer than the 2022–2023 season, but the microclimatic conditions were impacted by the cultivation practices which were applied. The canopy density and total leaf surface varied between the different sites (p < 0.01) and by season × site (p < 0.05). Site and the site × season interaction were the main drivers of the environmental conditions and cultivation practices. Canopy characteristics impacted the sugar accumulation rate over the two seasons. Grape berry transpiration was impacted by the environmental conditions at the sites. Chemical composition varied with soil depth. From the results of our study, although Chardonnay is suitable for cultivation in the Cape South region, site-specific conditions impact fruit development and the quality at harvest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Plant Phenology: Challenges for Fruit Production)
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