Salinity stress in grapevine: Nutrient dynamics and tolerance strategies

Grapevines, a major horticultural crop for table grapes and wine production, are moderately sensitive to soil salinity. However, the increasing salinisation of soils, driven primarily by climate change, poses a growing threat to viticulture across major grape-producing regions worldwide. While the broad physiological effects of salinity on grapevines are well documented, and key genes for salt tolerance have been identified using genomics-assisted methods, less is known about its impact on vine nutrition. This review explores the complex interactions between saline soils and grapevine cultivars, rootstock-scion combinations, root system architecture, and the uptake and translocation of macro- and micronutrients. Particular attention is given to the interactions between sodium (Na⁺) and potassium (K⁺), and between nitrate (NO₃^-) and chloride (Cl^-), and the role of ion transporter proteins in regulating nutrient concentrations and excluding Na⁺ and Cl^- under saline conditions. Traditional and emerging strategies for managing grapevine nutrition in saline environments are also discussed. Finally, we review future approaches that use high resolution phenotyping, imaging and molecular genetics to improve our understanding of salt tolerance traits in perennial crops. This synthesis offers novel insights into nutrient-salinity interactions in grapevines, identifies key knowledge gaps, and suggests future research to support sustainable viticulture and breeding of salt-tolerant rootstocks in increasingly saline landscapes.