Relationship between Esca Disease and Environmental and Management Parameters through Georeferenced Surveys

Fungal diseases of the grapevine cause significant damages to the quality and productivity of crops. Studying the interaction between grapevine pathologies, and environmental and management factors is essential for devel-oping a sustainable and high-quality wine production. In particular, Esca dis-ease, attributed to a complex of fungi from the genus Fusarium, Phaeoacremo-nium aleophilum and Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, is gaining growing interest at both national and international levels. It has been observed that some specific characteristics of a vineyard (variety, rootstock, training system, soil, age, etc.) can cause the plant to react differently to the disease. The main objectives of this study are: I) to map the disease distribution on a regional scale; II) to study the agronomic and environmental factors that can influence the spread of the pathogen. Infection outbreaks in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (north-eastern Italy) were mapped by considering more than 3,500 surveys taken over 19 years of observations. The relationships between the pathogen spread, some specific vineyard characteristics and the surrounding context were analyzed. Results show a capillary distribution of the pathogen in all viticultural areas of the region, with a particular incidence on white-grape varieties, and a strong correlation with grape variety, training system, soil organic carbon, and land-scape structure.