Climatic zoning of viticultural production periods over the year in the tropical zone: application of the methodology of the géoviticulture MCC System.

2005

Influence of the vintage, clone and rootstock on the chemical characteristics of Syrah tropical wines from Brazil.

In the Northeast of Brazil, vines can produce twice a year, because annual average temperature is 26ºC, with high solar radiation and water availability for irrigation. Many cultivars have been tested according to their adaptation to the climate and soil, and the main variety used for red wines is Syrah. This work aimed to evaluate five clones of Syrah, grafted on two rootstocks, in two harvests of the second semester of 2009 and 2010, according to the chemical analyses of the wines.The clones evaluated were 100, 174, 300, 470 and 525, the rootstocks were Paulsen 1103 and IAC 313 (Golia x Vitis caribeae). Grapes were harvested in November 2009 and 2010 and the yield was evaluated. Climate characteristics of each harvest was determined and correlated to the results. Wines were elaborated in glass tanks of 20 L, with alcoholic fermentation at 25ºC for seven days, then wines were pressed and malolactic fermentation was carried out at 18ºC for 20 days. The following parameters were analyzed: alcohol content, dry extract, total anthocyanins, total phenolic index. High performance liquid chromatography was used to determine tartaric, malic, lactic and citric organic acids. Results showed that wines presented different concentrations of classical analyses, phenolics and organic acids according to the harvest date, rootstocks and clones. Principal component analysis was applied on data and clusters with wine samples were formed, explaining the variability, and results are discussed.

Uva sem semente: uma demanda da viticultura tropical.

A Embrapa Uva e Vinho desenvolve, desde 1997, um trabalho de melhoramento genético com o objetivo de criar cultivares de uvas sem sementes (de mesa) adaptadas às condições brasileiras. A previsão é lançar uma nova cultivar de uva sem semente, bem ao gosto dos consumidores do mercado internacional, principalmente europeu, até o ano de 2005. Atualmente, o Brasil ainda não domina esta tecnologia porque as cultivares importadas têm apresentado sérios problemas de adaptação às nossas condições ambientais, o que causa baixa produtividade. Além disso, o uso de cultivares de outros países implica em pagamento de royalties aos detentores de patentes.

Cabernet Sauvignon in tropical semi-arid climate (Pernambuco - Brasil): adaptation of some clones and their affinity to different rootstocks.

2011

Aroma profile of Cabernet Sauvignon tropical wines produced in Northeastern of Brazil.

2011

The influence of climatic conditions on the phenolic composition of tropical Brazilian wines.

2012

Evaluation of the aroma stability of tropical white wines from Brazil.

2011

Determination of bioactive amines in tropical wines produced at Brazilian's Northeast.

The wine production in the region of the Sub-middle São Francisco river Valley has started there are few years ago.The region has a climate variability that allows to obtain two or three harvests per year, which influences significantly the composition of the grapes. This work aimed to evaluate the amount of amines present in white and red tropical wines produced in the Northeast of Brazil. The winemaking was done by the traditional method. After stabilizing the wines were bottled and then analyzed for the determination of the amines putrescine, spermidine and spermine, by thin layer chromatography (TLC). The harvests were in June (harvest I) and November (harvest II) 2009. The results showed that the edaphoclimatic conditions of the two harvests had significant influence (p> 0.05) on bioactive amines concentration, with high values for red wines. In addition, tropical wines from Sub-middle São Francisco river Valley showed adequate correlation between bioactive amines as compared to other wines in the world.

Evaluation of grapevine germplasm under tropical conditions in Brazil.

2012

Sexual selection in a tropical fruit fly : role of a plant derived chemical in mate choice

The specific mechanisms by which selective pressures affect individuals are often difficult to resolve. In tephritid fruit flies, males respond strongly and positively to certain plant derived chemicals. Sexual selection by female choice has been hypothesized as the mechanism driving this behaviour in certain species, as females preferentially mate with males that have fed on these chemicals. This hypothesis is, to date, based on studies of only very few species and its generality is largely untested. We tested the hypothesis on different spatial scales (small cage and seminatural field-cage) using the monophagous fruit fly, Bactrocera cacuminata. This species is known to respond to methyl eugenol (ME), a chemical found in many plant species and one upon which previous studies have focused. Contrary to expectation, no obvious female choice was apparent in selecting ME-fed males over unfed males as measured by the number of matings achieved over time, copulation duration, or time of copulation initiation. However, the number of matings achieved by ME-fed males was significantly greater than unfed males 16 and 32 days after exposure to ME in small cages (but not in a field-cage). This delayed advantage suggests that ME may not influence the pheromone system of B. cacuminata but may have other consequences, acting on some other fitness consequence (e.g., enhancement of physiology or survival) of male exposure to these chemicals. We discuss the ecological and evolutionary implications of our findings to explore alternate hypotheses to explain the patterns of response of dacine fruit flies to specific plant-derived chemicals.

New particle formation and growth at a remote, sub-tropical coastal location

A month-long intensive measurement campaign was conducted in March/April 2007 at Agnes Water, a remote coastal site just south of the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast of Australia. Particle and ion size distributions were continuously measured during the campaign. Coastal nucleation events were observed in clean, marine air masses coming from the south-east on 65% of the days. The events usually began at ~10:00 local time and lasted for 1-4 hrs. They were characterised by the appearance of a nucleation mode with a peak diameter of ~10 nm. The freshly nucleated particles grew within 1-4 hrs up to sizes of 20-50 nm. The events occurred when solar intensity was high (~1000 W m-2) and RH was low (~60%). Interestingly, the events were not related to tide height. The volatile and hygroscopic properties of freshly nucleated particles (17-22.5 nm), simultaneously measured with a volatility-hygroscopicity-tandem differential mobility analyser (VH-TDMA), were used to infer chemical composition. The majority of the volume of these particles was attributed to internally mixed sulphate and organic components. After ruling out coagulation as a source of significant particle growth, we conclude that the condensation of sulphate and/or organic vapours was most likely responsible for driving particle growth during the nucleation events. We cannot make any direct conclusions regarding the chemical species that participated in the initial particle nucleation. However, we suggest that nucleation may have resulted from the photo-oxidation products of unknown sulphur or organic vapours emitted from the waters of Hervey Bay, or from the formation of DMS-derived sulphate clusters over the open ocean that were activated to observable particles by condensable vapours emitted from the nutrient rich waters around Fraser Island or Hervey Bay. Furthermore, a unique and particularly strong nucleation event was observed during northerly wind. The event began early one morning (08:00) and lasted almost the entire day resulting in the production of a large number of ~80 nm particles (average modal concentration during the event was 3200 cm-3). The Great Barrier Reef was the most likely source of precursor vapours responsible for this event.