The use of plant cover for soil protection in Mediterranean hillside vineyards may jeopardize the viability of crops due to the scarcity of water under semiarid conditions. Erosion control, soil characteristics and vineyard production were evaluated using three different treatments: (i) traditional tillage as the control group, (ii) soil covered by Brachypodium distachyon and (iii) soil covered by Secale cereale. Such plant cover for soil protection among woody crops is not frequent under semiarid conditions. Sediment yield and runoff were collected from nine (3 treatments  3 replications) plots of 2 m 2 . Soil moisture, organic carbon content and aggregate stability were measured for one year. Simulated rainfall on plots was used as a source of complementary data.A reduction of 50% in the production of the vineyard was noticed in the Brachypodium-treatment, probably due to the lower degree of soil moisture at 35 cm depth. Nevertheless, there was efficient erosion control and the soil's organic carbon content increased. The Secaletreatment produced more runoff than tillage treatment. Traditional tilling produced the greatest yield, though it is considered unsustainable in the long term for hillside vineyards, as it lost 1059 g m , compared to 62 and 70 g m À2 y À1 lost in soil covered with Secale and Brachypodium, respectively. A high variability was found in the runoff coefficient, which was usually less than 1% under moderate rainfall, although it reached 45% under extreme events.The blind tasting of wine showed a slight preference for wine produced on vines subject to the Secale treatment.

BackgroundMolecular clocks drive oscillations in leaf photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and other cell and leaf-level processes over ~24 h under controlled laboratory conditions. The influence of such circadian regulation over whole-canopy fluxes remains uncertain; diurnal CO2 and H2O vapor flux dynamics in the field are currently interpreted as resulting almost exclusively from direct physiological responses to variations in light, temperature and other environmental factors. We tested whether circadian regulation would affect plant and canopy gas exchange at the Montpellier European Ecotron. Canopy and leaf-level fluxes were constantly monitored under field-like environmental conditions, and under constant environmental conditions (no variation in temperature, radiation, or other environmental cues).ResultsWe show direct experimental evidence at canopy scales of the circadian regulation of daytime gas exchange: 20–79 % of the daily variation range in CO2 and H2O fluxes occurred under circadian entrainment in canopies of an annual herb (bean) and of a perennial shrub (cotton). We also observed that considering circadian regulation improved performance by 8–17 % in commonly used stomatal conductance models.ConclusionsOur results show that circadian controls affect diurnal CO2 and H2O flux patterns in entire canopies in field-like conditions, and its consideration significantly improves model performance. Circadian controls act as a ‘memory’ of the past conditions experienced by the plant, which synchronizes metabolism across entire plant canopies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13742-016-0149-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Aims</strong>: We report the genetic, phenological, agronomic and ampelographic characterization of 27 minor grapevine accessions (<em>Vitis vinifera </em>L.) from the Balearic Islands (Spain). The influence of occasional climatic phenomena (hailstorm) and the ampelographer’s experience on these characteristics was studied.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods and results</strong>: In 2006 and 2007, grapevine accessions were analyzed using 57 OIV (Office International de la Vigne et du Vin) qualitative and quantitative descriptors and six microsatellite loci (SSR). Ampelography is a good preliminary technique for the identification of plant material, since the ampelographic description carried out showed a high degree of similarity between the repetitions of one single accession (higher than 90%), confirming the microsatellite results. The colour of the young leaf’s upper side (OIV-051), the juiciness of the flesh (OIV-232) and the firmness of berry flesh (OIV-235) were the most difficult characters to distinguish by ampelographers. In spite of the greater similarity found among the varieties studied, there were a few strong discriminant characters (OIV-225, OIV-084, OIV-053, and OIV-004). In addition, the ampelographic descriptions, agronomic parameters and phenology were influenced by hailstorm.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusions</strong>: The combination of morphological and molecular characterizations of 27 accessions collected in the Balearic Islands (Spain) allowed their classification into 17 different vine varieties. The genetic analysis identified Beba blanca as a possible somatic mutant derived from Beba roja. The hailstorm increased the vegetative period and mostly affected mature leaves, bunches, agronomic characteristics and must composition.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Significance and impact of the study</strong>: The present work characterizes, for the first time, the ampelographic and molecular profiles of these minor varieties. It is provide agronomic information about old cultivars never published before which could be interesting for the grape growers.</p>

• The potential of the vegetation to sequester C is determined by the balance between 2 C-assimilation and respiration. Respiration is under environmental and substrate-3 driven control, but the circadian clock might also contribute to its regulation. 4 • To assess circadian control on night-time dark respiration (R D) and on leaf respiration 5 after light-to-dark transitions as an indicator for light enhanced dark respiration 6 (LEDR)-the latter providing information on the metabolic reorganization in the leaf 7 during light-dark transitions-we performed two experiments in macrocosms hosting 8 canopies of bean and cotton. Under constant darkness, we tested whether circadian 9 regulation of R D scaled from leaf to whole canopy respiration. Under constant light, we assessed the potential for leaf-level circadian regulation of LEDR. • There was a clear circadian oscillation of leaf-level R D in both species and circadian patterns scaled to the canopy. Respiration in leaves transferred from light to darkness was under circadian control in cotton, but not in bean indicating speciesspecific controls overLEDR. • The circadian rhythm of LEDR in cotton might indicate variable suppression of the normal cyclic function of the tricarboxylic acid cycle in the light. Since circadian regulation is assumed to act as an adaptive memory to adjust plant metabolism based on environmental conditions from previous days, circadian control of R D may help to explain temporal variability of ecosystem respiration.