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German vineyards are one of the land uses most prone to soil erosion. Due to their placement on mainly steep slopes and non-conservative cultivation practices, runoff and soil loss are a serious problem for wine growers. In the Saar-Mosel valley (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), there is a tendency towards organic management of vineyards with protective grass cover in the inter-rows. Since there is a lack of information about organic-conventional tillage in German vineyards related to soil erosion processes, this study presents a comparison between these two soil management practices. For this purpose, 22 rainfall simulations were performed as well as a medium-term monitoring by using 4-paired Gerlach troughs in two experimental sites in the Saar-Mosel valley. The mean simulated runoff coefficient and suspended sediment load in conventional vineyards amounted up to 23.3% and 33.75 g m-2, respectively. In the organic site, runoff and soil loss were only recorded in one out of the 11 simulations. Runoff and sediment was collected in the Gerlach troughs for 33 natural rainfall events. In the conventional vineyard, the total measured soil loss was 3314.63 g m-1 and 6503.77 g m-1 and total runoff volumes were 105.52 L m-1 and 172.58 L m-1. In the organic site, total soil losses reached 143.16 g m-1 and 258.89 g m-1 and total runoff was 21.65 L m-1 and 12.69 L m-1. When soil loss was measured without corresponding runoff or precipitation, soil erosion was activated by tillage or trampling. Finally, the conventional vineyard showed a higher variability in soil loss and runoff suggesting less predictable results.

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Effects of land use and management on plant and pollinator diversity at the local scale have been reported. However, there is little information available on the spatial and temporal aspects of plant-pollinator mutualist diversity relative to farm management. Information on these aspects will provide a better understanding of agri-environment schemes in a conservation context., In the present study, we use additive partitioning (sum of within and among community diversity) to determine local (alpha) diversity and spatial and temporal (beta) diversity of bees and flowering plants in differently managed vineyards and adjacent natural vegetation in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot., Alpha, spatial beta and temporal beta diversities accounted for 18-61%, 19-72% and 7-36% of total bee diversity, respectively. Local diversity and spatial turnover of flowering plant diversity were significantly higher in the natural vegetation compared with organic and conventional vineyards. Spatial turnover of bees varied significantly with longitudinal coordinates of study sites., We show that wildlife-friendly management practices ensure species-rich plant communities that promote pollinator diversity. We demonstrate the necessity to conserve mosaics of natural and semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes to conserve plant and bees. Our findings demonstrate the need to include spatial factors of habitats for effective conservation in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]