NYT on Climate Change and Vineyards

Lots of talk about what happens when we migrate vineyards to the hills. I'm curious about what happens to the vineyards left behind? They'll fall away from monoculture -- at least, the ones that aren't converted to condos -- and then we can make new nature preserves. (Different flora/fauna but we are all at the mercy of the atmosphere and we will change when it changes.)
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Lots of talk about what happens when we migrate vineyards to the hills. I'm curious about what happens to the vineyards left behind? They'll fall away from monoculture -- at least, the ones that aren't converted to condos -- and then we can make new nature preserves. (Different flora/fauna but we are all at the mercy of the atmosphere and we will change when it changes.)
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Changes in rain pattern may have a greater effect than modest warming; also, if the gulf stream shuts down for a while, competition for Rhys allocations will go through the roof.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Lots of talk about what happens when we migrate vineyards to the hills. I'm curious about what happens to the vineyards left behind? They'll fall away from monoculture -- at least, the ones that aren't converted to condos -- and then we can make new nature preserves. (Different flora/fauna but we are all at the mercy of the atmosphere and we will change when it changes.)
Click to expand...

Changes in rain pattern may have a greater effect than modest warming; also, if the gulf stream shuts down for a while, competition for Rhys allocations will go through the roof.
Click to expand...

I believe they no longer see the gulf stream shutting down as one of the likely effects of arctic ice melt. Unless they are back to that theory. It's hard to keep track.
 
No, just kidding around. A conjecture is that the lesser Dryas was caused by the outflow of an inland lake or sea, breaking through retreating glacier dams, smothering the north Atlantic sinkhole with light, fresh water. But the forces driving the Atlantic conveyor are so enormous, it seems as though only something relatively sudden and dramatic like the above could disrupt it.

On the other hand, unpredictability is the name of the game in large-scale climate change. And changes in rainfall would still worry me more in traditional, irrigation-free growing areas than changes in mean temperatures.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
unpredictability is the name of the game in large-scale climate change. And changes in rainfall would still worry me more in traditional, irrigation-free growing areas than changes in mean temperatures.
Click to expand...

This is what has me worried. Here in the Willamette Valley, we had a record wet January 2012 and a record cold and wet June 2012, followed by a record dry July-Sept 2012 and a record dry Jan-March 2013. These periods occurred without the benefit of an El Niño or a La Niña, btw.
 
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