The climate of mango producing areas: a case study on three islands

Abstract

Cultivation of mango (Mangifera indica L.) spread in the last 30 years to wider latitudes than the species' native area. This raises numerous questions regarding the species adaptation capacity, physiology and productivity. We described the climate of three different mango producing areas located in distant islands: La Réunion (21ºS, France), located in the Mascarene archipelago in the Indian ocean; Tenerife (28ºN, Spain), in the Canary archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean; and Sicily (38ºN, Italy), at the centre of the Mediterranean Sea. Air temperature, rainfall, evapotranspiration, solar radiation, wind speed and direction were collected from weather stations located as close as possible to experimental mango orchards for the period 2018-2022. The climate of each orchard was characterized and they were compared across the three islands. The orchards fell into micro-climatic areas that differed from each island's macro-climatic area as they are described in the literature. The three orchards differed greatly on the basis of several parameters. The absolute highest (43ºC) and lowest (2.5ºC) temperatures were recorded in Sicily. Temperatures showed little variability, both during the day and along the year, in La Réunion and in Tenerife, where the daily average temperatures ranged between 18ºC and 27ºC. Also the annual distributions of rainfall and potential evapotranspiration varied greatly: the cumulated pluviometric deficit was negative during half of the year in La Réunion, during two thirds of the year in Sicily, while it was constantly negative in Tenerife, which was characterized by a nearly arid climate. Rainfall and high temperatures occurred at different periods of the mango phenological cycle among the islands, probably affecting this cycle and the potential productivity. The results show that mango could be cultivated in a broad range of climatic conditions, if appropriate crop management is implemented to ensure sustainable fruit production.