Vineyard inter-row soil management is performed for weed control, water conservation, or to prevent erosion (Bauer et al. 2004). Tillage is often flexibly conducted in response to climatic conditions and/ or physical characteristics of soil; however, it is usually performed at least once a year. Generally, tillage effects on soil organisms may be directly, through disturbance of an organisms’ body, or indirectly, by exposing organisms to harmful con- ditions, by changing the distribution of organic matter in the soil or by changing soil moisture, temperature, aeration or compaction. Compared with arable systems, potential impacts of tillage on soil organisms in vineyards have rarely been investigated (Paoletti 1988, Coll et al. 2011, 2012, Vrši č 2011, Virto et al. 2012). However, it can be expected that earthworms respond differently to tillage in vineyards than in arable land. The main reasons could be that vineyards are more intensively managed than arable fields including more pesticide applications, more soil compaction due to more frequent traffic and usually a lesser soil quality. Earthworms are little affected by reduced soil tillage methods in vineyards FLORIAN FABER 1 , ELISABETH WACHTER 1 , JOHANN G. ZALLER 2, * 1 Education and Research Centre for Viticulture and Pomology Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg, Austria 2 Institute of Zoology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Vienna, Austria *Corresponding author: johann.zaller@boku.ac.at ABSTRACT Faber F., Wachter E., Zaller J.G. (2017): Earthworms are little affected by reduced soil tillage methods in vineyards. Plant Soil Environ., 63: 257–263. Inter-rows in vineyards are commonly tilled in order to control weeds and/or to conserve water. While impacts of tillage on earthworms are well studied in arable systems, very little is known from vineyards. In an experimental vineyard, the impact of four reduced tillage methods on earthworms was examined: rotary hoeing, rotary har- rowing, grubbing and no tillage. According to an erosion prevention programme, tillage was applied every other inter-row only while alternating rows retained vegetated. Earthworms were extracted from the treated inter-rows 10, 36, 162 and 188 days after tillage. Across dates, tillage methods had no effect on overall earthworm densities or biomass. Considering each sampling date separately, earthworm densities were affected only at day 36 after tillage leading to lower densities under rotary hoeing (150.7 ± 42.5 worms/m 2 ) and no tillage (117.3 ± 24.8 worms/m 2 ) than under rotary harrowing (340.0 ± 87.4 worms/m 2 ) and grubbing (242.7 ± 43.9 worms/m 2 ). Time since till- age significantly increased earthworm densities or biomass, and affected soil moisture and temperature. Across sampling dates, earthworm densities correlated positively with soil moisture and negatively with soil temperature; individual earthworm mass increased with increasing time since tillage. It was concluded that reduced tillage in vineyards has little impact on earthworms when applied in spring under dry soil conditions. Keywords: agroecosystem; soil cultivation; soil disturbance; soil macrofauna; viticulture Supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. 257 Plant Soil Environ. Vol. 63, 2017, No. 6: 257–263 doi: 10.17221/160/2017-PSE