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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Agron.
Sec. Climate-Smart Agronomy
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fagro.2024.1496255

Reassessing the schedule of the sugar season in maple under climate warming

Provisionally accepted
Gian De Lima Santos Gian De Lima Santos 1*Roberto Silvestro Roberto Silvestro 1Sara Yumi Sassamoto Kurokawa Sara Yumi Sassamoto Kurokawa 1Guillaume De Lafontaine Guillaume De Lafontaine 2Sergio Rossi Sergio Rossi 1
  • 1 Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Canada
  • 2 Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Quebec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Daily temperature fluctuations trigger physical and metabolic processes in the xylem, affecting the timing and yield of maple sap production. This study evaluates sap production dynamics, examining the effects of mean monthly temperatures and freeze-thaw cycles before and during the sugar season. We developed a predictive model estimating sap phenology, i.e. the timings of sap season and their climatic drivers, under future warming scenarios in Quebec, Canada. We collected air temperatures and daily sap production at four study sites in 2022 and 2023 using rain gauges for simulating a gravity collection of sap. We estimated sap phenology using a neural network model based on average monthly temperatures. The length of the sugar season was consistent across and within sites, with the highly productive days showing similar occurrence across sites. Sap yields ranged from 9.28 to 23.8 liters in 2022 and 3.8 to 13.6 liters in 2023. Freeze-thaw events occurred on 64% of the days when sap was exuded. Our neural network model predicted that a 2°C increase in mean monthly temperatures would advance the sugar season start by 17 days and end by 13 days. Any mismatch between tapping and favorable weather conditions can significantly reduce sap production. With climate change, producers will be forced to progressively readjust the schedule of their field activities and tapping to match the shifting sugar season.

    Keywords: Maple syrup, Acer saccharum, Sap exudation, Freeze-thaw cycles, Climate Change

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 27 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 De Lima Santos, Silvestro, Sassamoto Kurokawa, De Lafontaine and Rossi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gian De Lima Santos, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.