Viticultural climate variability at Santana do Livramento, Campanha Gaúcha, Brazil

Abstract

Meteorological conditions are fundamental factors in the development of viticulture anywhere in the world. Considering this, the viticultural climate and climate variability of Santana do Livramento, Campanha Gaúcha, Brazil, was characterized based on the three bioclimatic indices defined by the Geoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification (MCC) System – cool night index (CI), heliothermal index (HI) and dryness index (DI) – in addition to a modified dryness index (DImodified). The observed climate variability was correlated with the three phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) – namely, El Niño, La Niña and neutral phase. El Niño events presented typically higher DI and DImodified values and lower HI values. La Niña events showed typically the opposite pattern, lower DI and DImodified values and higher HI values. Neutral conditions were characterized mostly by intermediate values for DI and DImodified as well as HI but the highest amplitude of CI values. The DImodified followed by DI and HI were the indexes presenting the highest correlation with the polarization of ENSO phases.

Keywords

• la niña
• campanha gaúcha
• vitis vinifera
• bioclimatic indexes
• geoviticulture multicriteria climatic classification system