ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES AND SUSTAINABLE OLIVE GROWING

The olive tree, Olea europaea L. is resistant to soil water deficit, high irradiance, high temperature and high vapour pressure deficit. Olive trees are also more resistant to salinity than most perennial crops, but sensitive to low oxygen conditions in the soil and low temperature. Traditional orchard management already takes advantage of adaptive features of the species to the environment, but environ-mental issues and the expansion of olive growing to new areas where climates and soils are often not optimal require revisiting criteria for orchard design and manage-ment protocols. The mechanisms of adaptation of olive trees to main environmental stresses (drought, salinity, temperature) are here reviewed as well as the implications of olive stress physiology on sustainable management of olive growing.