The cessation of growth of native forage during winter has encouraged the improvement of native grasslands. Aiming to study water intake rates and soil and water losses by erosion as affected by different methods of native grassland improvement, an experiment was conducted at the Agronomic Experimental Station of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Eldorado do Sul, Brazil, on a Paleudult soil under extensive native grassland use. A mixture of winter species of forage, specifically oat (Avena strigosa), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) and arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum) was introduced. The experimental design was completely randomized with five treatments: zero tillage (control), no-tillage; disking; sub-soiling, and conventional tillage. The dimensions of the experimental plots were 3.5 by 11.0 m, with a slope of approximately 0.107 m m-1. Simulated rainfall was applied at an average intensity of 64 mm h-1, during 75 minutes at three moments: at 55, 125 and 175 days after soil tillage and sowing. Between these rainfall simulations, a two-day cattle grazing was performed. The sub-soiling treatment showed the highest infiltration rate. Soil loss was very low at all three runs and less water loss by runoff occurred under sub-soiling, while zero tillage showed the highest runoff rates. This indicates that sub-soiling is an effective method of breaking subsurface compacted layers.
native grasslands; water intake rate; erosion; simulated rainfall; runoff