In the context of climate change strategies are needed towards sustainable agricultural production. The aim of this study is to identify crop adaptation options to face the expected changes in water availability by exploiting the existing intra-specific biodiversity of the tomato crop and accounting for irrigation management and the hydrological properties of soils. The biophysical dimension of crop adaptation is therefore addressed. A study is presented examining an irrigated district in southern Italy. Using as a climatic reference the period 1961–90 and as a future climate the period 2021–2050, a soil water availability indicator was determined by a soil water balance model, at optimal irrigation and at different deficit irrigation strategies, in 23 soil units. For five tomato cultivars, hydrological requirements were determined by means of yield response functions to soil water availability. Cultivar-specific hydrological requirements were evaluated against the soil water availability indicator to determine probabilities of adaptation of each cultivar. These cultivars are not currently being grown in the study area so their potential spatial distribution in the study area was estimated. For instance, with 60% of optimal irrigation, two cultivars were assessed as having probabilities of crop adaptation larger than 0.89, in 90% and 62% of the area. In the future climate, with limited water resources, a proper choice and combination of cultivars, irrigation strategies and soils would allow to maintain the current production system in a large part of the study area.

Water deficit limiting yields is one of the negative aspects of climate change. However, this applies particularly when emphasis is on biomass production (e.g. for field crops), but not necessarily for plants where quality, not quantity is most relevant. For grapevine development, mild water stress occurring during specific phenological phases is an important factor when producing good quality wines. It induces the production of anthocyanins and aroma precursors and then could offer an opportunity to increase winegrower's income.

A multidisciplinary study was carried out in Campania region (Southern Italy), an area well known for high quality wine production. Growth of Aglianico grapevine cultivar, with a standard clone population on 1103 Paulsen rootstocks, was studied on two different types of soil: Calcisols and Cambisols occurring along a slope of 90 m length with 11% gradient.

The agro-hydrological model SWAP was calibrated and applied to estimate soil-plant water status during three consecutive seasons (2011–2013). Crop water stress index (CWSI), as estimated by the model, was related to leaf water potential, sugar content of grape bunches and wine quality (e.g. content of tannins). For both soils, the correlations between quality measurements and CWSI were high (e.g. − 0.97** with sugar; 0.895* with anthocyanins in the grape skins).

The model was also applied to explore effects of future climate conditions (2021–2051) obtained from statistical downscaling of Global Circulation Models (AOGCM) and to estimate the effect of the climate on CWSI and hence on grape quality. Effects of climate change on grape quality indicate: (i) a resilient behavior of Calcisol to produce high quality wine, (ii) a good potentiality for improving the quality wine in Cambisol.

The present study represents an example of multidisciplinary approach in which soil scientists, hydro-pedologists, crop modellers, plant physiologists and oenologists have integrated their knowledge and skills in order to deal with the complex interactions among different components of an agricultural system.