Recipient Organization
FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
TALLAHASSEE,FL 32307
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
In the face of climate change, demand for more sustainable and eco-friendly food products continue to rise. This trend is evident in the global viticulture industry as consumers increase their awareness of agricultural impacts on the environment. Wine and grape production in the southern U.S. is based solely on unique varieties of muscadine and American hybrid bunch grapes that can tolerate the high level of biotic and abiotic stressors, that includes high humidity and temperature, erratic rainfall, bacterial and fungal pathogens, and damaging insects found in the Southern U.S. Region. These pressures require the application of numerous pesticides for a successful season. As a result, more sustainable practices have yet to be demonstrated effective for the industry's adoption. This project aims to utilize new climate smart management strategies and emerging viticulture technologies at Florida A&M University's (FAMU) Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research (CVSFR) in order to control new emerging pests in southern vineyards. The combination of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and enteropathogenic nematodes (EN), combined with under vine vegetation (UVV), will increase soil microbial biodiversity, grapevine health, wine quality, and lower the impact of agrochemicals on the environment reducing input costs and increasing grower profits. Results of this project will be used to produce a "Climate Smart Production Guide for Southern Grapes" for dissemination to the industry and stakeholders. At the same time, the project will train undergraduate and graduate researchers with practical experiential learning and technologically advanced proficiency to supplement a diverse and specialized viticulture workforce.
Animal Health Component
45%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
45%
Developmental
25%
Goals / Objectives
The main objective of our research proposal is to build up research capacity in sustainable vineyard management strategies for southern grapes at FAMU's Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research with purpose to generate new knowledge for Florida grapes and wines and serve as a technological training platform for young professionals, industry clientele and extension personnel. The specific objectives contributing to the success of the proposal are:1)Convert existing rows of a conventionally managed vineyard at FAMU CVSFR to adapt three climate smart practices: UVV, AMF, and EN treatments (Figure 3);2)Install Real-Time vineyard monitoring system to measure conditions and use software to model and estimate risk of diseases and pests;3)Collect soil and plant samples from experimental plots over the span of the project and submit to Biome Makers for soil health and micro biome and analyze VOCs using GC-MS;4)Produce 36 total experimental wine samples for each climate smart variation and evaluate for vinification properties and healthy compounds;5)Develop a new "Climate Smart Muscadine Management Guide" to summarize results of the study to easily make available to industry partners, researchers,and hobbyists grape growers;6)To provide research curricula and training for one (1) graduate student at the master level and two (2) undergraduate student researchers.
Project Methods
Layout of Experimental VineyardThis study will use four commercially relevant white and red southern winemaking grape cultivars; two muscadine varieties (Carlos and Noble) and two hybrid bunch grape cultivars (Blanc Dubois and Black Spanish). For each cultivar, two rows containing ten panels (40 vines total) will be designated as the vines involved in the experiment and shall no longer be treated conventionally with pesticides. The vines involved in the experiment will adopt the following climate smart management strategies depending on the location. For each experimental row, two panels will be used for each treatment. Panels 1 & 2 will receive no treatment and be used as a control. Panels 3 & 4 will be treated with UVV. Panels 5 & 6 will be treated with UVV and AMF. Panels 7 & 8 will be treated with UVV and EN. Panels 9 & 10 will receive all three treatments: UVV, AMF, and EN (Figure 3).?Climate Smart ApplicationsSections of the experimental rows will be applied with under vine vegetation (UVV) treatments by removing the existing vegetation under the vines and sowed with seeds of specific cover cropvarieties. The existing vegetation under the vines will be removed manually by members of the center's farm crew. The two varieties of cover crops that will be used in this study will be White Clover (Trifolium repens) and Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima). The ability for each cover crop to reduce the amount of weed growth will be monitored and evaluated for reducing the need for herbicide while also maintaining proper air drainage to discourage fungal growth. EN and AMF treatments will be applied to the vines by planting inoculated UVV seeds. Seeds will be sowed only into the 4 ft wide section of soil under the vines using a custom mechanical applicator designed for vineyards.Installing the Real-Time Vineyard Monitoring System?The WatchDog Real-Time Vineyard Monitoring System will be ordered and installed in the beginning of the project to begin measuring conditions in the vineyard. The system will come with everything needed to set up in the vineyard including 8 stations able to instantly upload real time data wirelessly to the cloud. These stations will be mounted to tripods and connected to 40 sensors arranged evenly in the experimental vineyard in order to serve the rows involved in the project. This will measure soil moisture content, temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration, wind, leaf wetness, and includes disease modeling software to indicate the risk of fungal, bacterial, and viral pathogens.Vineyard Microbiome Analysis- Biome MakersBefore implementing CS practices to the experimental rows, 40 soil samples will be collected from the climate smart experimental rows and submitted to be analyzed utilizing Biome Makers Inc. to generate a "Vineyard Microbiome Analysis Report". This report will determine the range, distribution, and average analytical values of the soil (biodiversity, functionality, resistance, plant diseases, pesticide residue, hormone production, stress adaptation, nutrition, and wine-related microbial profiles). After the second year of the project and the experiment is complete, another 40 samples will be collected and analyzed for the same parameters (80 total soil samples to be analyzed). The resulting information from this report will be crucial for understanding the effects of the climate smart practices on the soil microbiome and wine related microorganisms.Furthermore, the information from this report will be used to determine if the microbiome characteristics of the soil have any effect on grape and wine quality.Leaf sample collection and preparation for HS-SPME:After the second year of the project, leaves from the grapevines involved in the study will be collected from each of the experimental rows in the vineyard and extracted using headspace solid- phase microextraction (HS-SPME) as described by (Deng 2021). In summary, the leaves from each panel with variations of climate smart treatments will be randomly sampled. Collected leaves will then be ground into fine powder in liquid nitrogen. For each extraction sample, 100 mg of powder will be spiked with 10 uL of 2-octanol before being transferred to the sealed glass vials. The VOCs from extracts of grapevine leaves will be extracted using HS-SPME. The VOCs will be collected using a 2-cm DVB/CAR/PMDS SPME fiber. The SPME fiber will be inserted directly into the injection port of the GC system for thermal desorption.GC-MS analysis:A Shimadzu GC-2010 gas chromatograph (GC), which is coupled to a QP2010S mass spectrometer (Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan) and equipped with an Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, CA, USA) will be used to analyze the VOCs profile of grape population.Statistical Analyses and Volatile Profiling:The normalized data will be exported to R free software v. 3.2.3 for statistical analysis. The means and SEs will be determined for all the detected variables. Significant variances will be validated using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) test. The data will be imported into SIMCA software version 14.1 for multivariate statistical analyses. PCA will be conducted to visualize the main correlations in the whole data matrix, followed by PLS-DA. A permutation test will be applied to validate the PLS-DA results and to avoid overfitting. Afterward, the variable importance in projection (VIP) will be used to define the VOCs significant contribution.Vinification and Analysis of Experimental Juice and Wine Quality- FAMU Wine Analytical LabExperimental vinificationsFor years 1 & 2 of the project, the berries of each variation in the experimental rows will be collected and processed into juice and wine using the crusher/destemmer and press at the CVSFR. In total, 36 unique juice and wine samples will be created for each year. The white grapes (Blanc Dubois and Carlos) will be made into standard styles white wine; processed into juice and inoculated with winemaking yeast. Conversely, the red grapes (Black Spanish & Noble) will be crushed and fermented on the skins to make traditional red style wine. Before fermentation, 36 fresh juice samples will be collected and analyzed for the same parameters. The 36 juice samples and 36 wine samples will make 72 samples all together for each year. Each of the vinification samples will be compared based on enological properties and healthy compounds analysis conducted in the wine analytical lab in order to determine any detectable differences in wine quality parameters.Vinification Properties and Healthy Compounds AnalysisUtilizing the "Wine Analytical Lab" at FAMU's CVSFR, the 72 samples of resulting experimental juices and wines from the experimental rows of this project will be evaluated for 15 vinification parameters and 7 healthy compound parameters?Development and publication of "Climate Smart Muscadine Management Guide". All aspects of the project will be documented and assembled to develop the "Climate Smart Muscadine Management Guide". This informative and practical guide will include topics associated with planning and establishing the bio-control practices in existing, new, or future developed vineyards. The evolution of the soil microbiome and plant VOC emissions will be described. Consideration will be given to costs associated with the project as well as estimated savings related to reduced pesticides. Pictures and diagrams will be included to give visual aids to readers learning about pests and conditions to be sensitive of. Data collected from the vineyard monitoring system as well as from chemical analysis of soil microbiome will included in the guide to give readers a better understanding of the effects of each climate smart practice. Expertise ofthe PD, Co-PIs, and collaborator will come together to describe how to apply the knowledge gained from the project to grape growers and wineries of all sizes.