Graduate in Agronomy and PhD in Biological Engineering/Grapevine physiology by UTAD. Assistant Professor in UTAD and full member of CITAB. His scientific activity has focused on the study of adaptation measures of vineyards and other Mediterranean cultures to severe summer stress, especially those ones that are easy-to-implement and environmentally friendly. He was a team member of several competitive projects. He is author/co-author of several papers in national and international journals and supervised several MSc and PhD students.

Title: Climate change mitigation strategies for Douro Wine Region

Abstract: In Portugal, the wine-grape sector has a crucial economic, social and cultural relevance, especially in many inland regions of the country. One of those is the Douro Wine Region, which is the oldest viticultural legal region in the world. In recent decades the grapevine/wine sector has been modernized, creating strict regulations to guarantee wine characteristics. By developing environmentally friendly management practices and controlling winemaking technologies, a positive effect on the improvement of the productivity and wine quality has been felt. However, in the main viticultural areas, such as the Douro Region, vines are often subjected to periods of severe drought associated with strong light and high temperature. Consequently, the vineyard experiences irreparable damage. Due to global climate change, it is increasingly accepted that future summer conditions in the Mediterranean countries will experience an increase in aridity. At the vine-growing regions, particularly in the Douro Region, where part of the territory is already at maximum resistance to stress, this effect may compromise the economic and social viability. Therefore, it is crucial to develop feasible mitigation strategies, not only in economic terms, but also in terms of grape quality and environmental sustainability. Among these measures, there has been a major effort undertaken by the scientific community, particularly by our team, to study the effect of inorganic substances (e.g. kaolin) in the improvement of light microclimate and water relations of leaves. Overall, the obtained results related with grapevine physiology behaviour reinforce the promising nature of kaolin application as summer stress mitigation strategy.