Chapter 6

Growing grapes for wine during the hot, dry summer. At the Chateau Larose Trintaudon in southern France, the climate is ideal for growing the grapes that are used for wine.

Photo by Grand Tour/Corbis.

The fascinating history of winemaking dates back thousands of years. Archaeologists have found signs of winemaking in many cultures the Mediterranean Sea, including those of the ancient Egyptians, and Greeks. More recently, Spain, Portugal, and France have become known for their wines. The entire Mediterranean region has a long tradition of cultivating wine grapes, and the production of wine has played an important role in the economic development of many and in religious rituals.

European explorers spread winemaking to other parts of the world For example, in the sixteenth century, Spanish explorers brought grape vines to Chile, Argentina, and California. Grape vines accompanied the Dutch to South Africa in the seventeenth century, and the British to Australia in the nineteenth century.

Although grapes can grow in many parts of the world, specific growing conditions are required to produce grapes for the best wines. The ideal climate is a combination of hot, dry summers and wet, mild winters. The hot and dry summer climate allows the grapes to develop the right balance of sugar and acidity that provides the complex flavors of a fine wine. The dry summers also prevent various plant diseases that flourish under moister conditions. Domesticated grapes have deep roots, so they are well adapted to dry summer landscapes. Because below-freezing temperatures can harm the vines, the presence of mild, wet winters are equally important. While climate is critical, the flavor of a fine wine is also influenced by the mineral content of the soils in which the vines grow. The composition of a soil depends on the unique combination of minerals in the bedrock from which it is formed; these minerals affect how well the grape vines grow and give the grapes a distinctive flavor that characterizes the wine made from them. In short, distinctive tasting wines from around the world are the result of unique combinations of climate and soil.

Given the conditions required to make a great wine, it is perhaps not surprising that most of the major wine-producing locations around the world have the same climate—hot, dry summers followed by cool, moist winters. This is the climate of the countries surrounding most of the Mediterranean Sea. It is also the climate of most regions where wine grapes have been introduced, including Chile, Argentina, California, South Africa, and the southwestern coast of Australia. Interestingly, these regions all lie on the west side of continents and are located between 30° and 50° in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Not only do they have similar climates, but their landscapes also contain similar looking plants, despite being separated by thousands of kilometers. For example, while each winemaking region contains a large number of unique plant species, the plants are similar in their growth form. Whether in France, California, Chile, or South Africa, the plant communities are dominated by drought-adapted grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs.

In this chapter, we will explore how particular climates that are found in different locations around the world are associated with very similar looking plants and how scientists use these patterns to categorize terrestrial ecosystems. We will also examine why scientists categorize aquatic ecosystems in a different way, based on differences in salinity, flow, and depth.

As we saw in Chapter 5, climate patterns around the globe are determined by a range of factors including air currents, water currents, Coriolis forces, and local geographic features. Together, these factors cause the patterns of climate that occur in different regions of the world. Different climates provide unique seasonal temperature and precipitation conditions and these unique conditions favor different types of plants.