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The effects of the April 2021 frost increased tenfold ... by global warming

2021-06-17T14:15:10.472Z


An international study, published on Tuesday, attributes the colossal damage linked to the late frost of April 2021 among wine growers and arboriculturalists.


Repeated heat waves, recurring droughts, an ice floe that is shrinking like a skin of sorrow ... Global warming is already having obvious visible consequences.

But who would have thought that on a warmer planet, the effects of freezing would also be increased tenfold?

After the exceptional wave of frost, which ravaged part of French vineyards between April 6 and 8, 2021 and caused more than two billion damage to tree growers, researchers believe that the scale of this disaster is directly linked to the increase. world temperature.

According to their study published on Tuesday, the climate crisis would have even "increased by almost 60% in France the probability of frosts last April".

This is because with warming, plants tend to wake up earlier from their winter “dormancy”.

"We saved two weeks compared to the 1980s on the start of the growing season for the vegetation," explains climatologist Robert Vautard, who took part in this study.

Less fruit

"At that time, if the frost intervenes, it is a critical situation for the vegetation because the plant will perhaps be able to regrow but will probably not make fruit", adds Nicolas Viovy, specialist in the links between climate and vegetation. The researchers particularly studied the situation that arose in spring 2021 in Champagne, the Loire Valley and Burgundy. The results of their report show that while global warming has made cold spells less likely, it has made budding earlier possible, this famous period which marks the end of the vegetative rest of plants and the appearance of their leaves and flowers. first buds.

This year, before suffering the onslaught of frost, the plants experienced a particularly scorching month of March.

Such as to mislead them about the early return of spring.

“We were in a T-shirt in the vineyards at the start of the year,” recalls Anne, a winegrower in Savoie.

With these temperatures, the vegetation is systematically ahead.

To try to counter the effects of frost, the wine growers and arborists have tried everything: installation of candles between the vines, rotation of helicopters, installation of towers to stir the air…

VIDEO.

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“In the past, the frost was every seven to ten years, but now it's much more regular,” emphasizes Christophe, a winegrower in Anjou.

Suddenly, we think about investing in specific equipment.

But for Nicolas Viovy, "watering the vines or putting braziers to maintain the heat in the plantations" are techniques that have their limits, especially when the wave of frost is bound to last a long time.

The researcher believes that it might be wiser to think about what to sow.

“To take advantage of the warming and have fruit earlier, some growers have tended in recent years to use plant species that bud earlier, but perhaps we will have to invest in later plants now.

"

This study was carried out by an international group of scientists from the Pierre-Simon-Laplace Institute (from the CNRS and CEA), the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, the University of Oxford, the Max-Planck Institute of Bio-geochemistry of Jena and Météo France.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-06-17

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