Abstract
Tillage is the main force of soil redistribution in agricultural land use and has been seen as more critical than water erosion. This study aims to evaluate the effect of tillage with standard disk in vineyards. A representative study area with grapevines was selected, and 39 inter-rows were selected to test the effect of slope and forward speed. In each inter-row, a strip of soil was collected, and mixed with 2 kg of coloured sand used as a tracer, then replaced in the strip, and shallow soil tillage was performed by means of a standard disk plough. Three soil subsamples were collected along the slope every 0.30 m from the coloured strip and the sand tracer was separated from the soil and weighed. The results show that the mean soil translocation distance ranged from 0.73 to 1.14 m along the upslope direction, and from 0.32 to 0.84 m along the downslope direction. The net translocation was −0.33 ± 0.12 m which indicate an upslope soil movement. Mean translocation distance was not significantly affected by the considered forward speeds. These results demonstrate that tillage can reallocate soil upslope and open new insights into the use of disk plough as sustainable management in vineyards.
Highlights
Soil erosion in vineyards is an environmental issue that threatens the sustainability of winemaking in all the wine production world regions
In each inter-row, a strip of soil was collected, and mixed with 2 kg of coloured sand used as a tracer, replaced in the strip, and shallow soil tillage was performed by means of a standard disk plough
The results show that the mean soil translocation distance ranged from 0.73 to 1.14 m along the upslope direction, and from 0.32 to 0.84 m along the downslope direction
Summary
Soil erosion in vineyards is an environmental issue that threatens the sustainability of winemaking in all the wine production world regions. It is a Mediterranean issue restricted to the three main producers: Italy [1,2], Spain [3,4], and France [5]. The high erosion rates recorded in vineyards are responsible for a decline of soil fertility with a subsequent higher requirement of nutrients and landscape impact due to sediment translocation [13]. The above factors determine tillage erosivity, defined as the potential for a tillage operation to translocate soil within a landscape [16]. The strong interaction between soil physical parameters (e.g., structure and porosity) and tillage factors determine contrasting results on the magnitude of soil translocation
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