RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Influence of Canopy Management Practices on Vineyard Microclimate: Definition of New Microclimatic Indices JF American Journal of Enology and Viticulture JO Am. J. Enol. Vitic. FD American Society for Enology and Viticulture SP ajev.2012.11117 DO 10.5344/ajev.2012.11117 A1 Alessandro Matese A1 Alfonso Crisci A1 Filippo Salvatore Di Gennaro A1 Edoardo Fiorillo A1 Jacopo Primicerio A1 Piero Toscano A1 Francesco Primo Vaccari A1 Stefano Di Blasi A1 Lorenzo Genesio YR 2012 UL http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2012/06/22/ajev.2012.11117.abstract AB Meteorological parameters have a crucial influence on grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.), affecting production quantity and quality. Most commonly used bioclimatic indices are not appropriate to represent intra-vineyard micrometeorological variability and in particular the sub-daily dynamics that are known to be important in grape maturation processes. The aim of this paper was to compile a new set of micrometeorological indices and evaluate their capacity to discriminate the differences in the microclimatic daily cycle induced by different canopy management techniques. The study was conducted on a statistical dataset of 3 years (2008, 2009, 2010) of hourly data of cluster internal temperature, canopy air temperature, and solar radiation intercepted by the cluster, collected in four vineyards planted with Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon, located in three climatic zones of Tuscany (Italy). Starting from this dataset, some new micrometeorological indices were defined using two different criteria for sub-daily time segmentation: (i) static, based on fixed hourly intervals and (ii) dynamic, based on solar height daytime segmentation. The results showed that indices based on sub-daily data provide a better representation of vineyard microclimate than daily indices, also being able to highlight microclimatic differences induced by canopy management practices. As a general consideration, the indices more sensitive to treatments are those related to the solar radiation intercepted by the cluster (CR) parameter and relative to Broad Daylight Index (BDI), which represent the average of micrometeorological parameters in the middle hours of the day. The proposed indices enable the improvement of the characterization of micrometeorological conditions induced by different canopy management practices and therefore to better assess the within-vineyard spatial variability of environmental parameters.