Temporal and soil management effects on hydrological and erosion processes in a hillslope vineyard (Monferrato, NW Italy)

General conclusions Soil losses were greater than the European tolerable soil erosion rate of 1.4 Mg ha-1 (Verheijenet al., 2009) in all treatments, up to 20 Mg ha-1 with the RT treatment The soil management and also the history of soil management influences the response of the vineyard in terms of runoff and soil erosion The tractor traffic was responsible for signficant differences in soil hydrological properties in the inter-row, more evident in the CT plot CT The negative effect of tillage was particularly evident after 9 years of adoption The increase of infiltration (and reduction of runoff) due to tillage in CT was limited to first one/two events, at yearly scale the effect is opposite Runoff in CT was mainly related to amount and duration of precipitation in wet seasons (saturation-excess runoff) and to rainfall intensity (hortonian runoff) both at seasonal than at event scale Erosion is more correlated with rainfall intensity, but could occur in both cases Highest runoff rates were observed in CT in autumn and winter, after tillage, so a huge portion of water available to be stored in the soil is lost