## Materials and Methods
### Splash Erosion Measurements  
Splash erosion was measured with the splash cup technique proposed by [PERSON] [23]. The splash cup was produced from a light polypropylene material, with an inner diameter of 10.3 cm and a standing height of 6 cm. On the bottom of the splash cup, holes were drilled to ensure water drainage through the soil; however, two fine meshes (500 and 1000 \(\upmu\)m) were placed on the bottom to prevent soil loss trough the holes (Figure 2a). Air-dried and sieved soil (<10 mm) was filled in three layers up to 1 cm below the splash cup edge, to prevent the overflow of soil on the surface during the high intensity rainfall. While levelling it continuously using a long needle, each soil layer was slightly compacted to reach similar conditions (bulk density) as in the field. Aggregates at the top layer surface were randomly distributed to achieve heterogeneous arrangement. For each soil, more or less the same mass was filled into the splash cups, to keep soil density (in seedbed condition) constant within the replicates (Figure 2b). Major differences in the soil structure of the samples prepared for experiment and the original soil in seedbed condition are the aggregate size and their arrangement, due to sieving and sample preparation. However, soil bulk density and porosity were within the same range of the soil in the seedbed condition in the field. Splash cups filled with soils were placed in the middle of a splash collector, with standing height of 30 cm and diameter of 47 cm (Figure 2c). The splash collector had an outlet, ensuring the drainage of rainfall water with splashed soil into collectors placed underneath (Figure 2d). The water collector underneath was completely closed, ensuring that only splashed soil was trapped into the collector. Splash cups were installed in the field in such a way that the soil surface was 1 m above ground level, which corresponds to the same height as the disdrometer (described in next chapter). A detailed splash cup and splash collector design can be found in [PERSON] et al. [55].  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Soil** & **Sand [\%]** & **Silt [\%]** & **Clay [\%]** & **Soil Texture** & **AS [\%]** & **pH** & **TOC [\%]** \\ \hline Zwerbach & 14.0 & 60.2 & 25.8 & Silt loam & 41.4 & 7.5 & 1.5 \\ Mistelbach & 11.2 & 70.4 & 18.4 & Silt loam & 18.3 & 8.2 & 1.6 \\ Bilkovice & 41.6 & 46.3 & 12.1 & Loamy sand & 63.3 & 6.9 & 1.7 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Notes: AS = aggregate stability; TOC = total organic carbon.  
\end{table}
Table 1: Soil physical and chemical properties.  
Splash cups were exchanged, and splashed sediment was collected after each rainfall event, with accumulated precipitation of 5 mm. The events with precipitation lower than 5 mm were considered as erosive if the accumulated rainfall of 2.5 mm was reached after 15 min. This threshold was adopted based on preliminary data analysis and recommended by some European authors [44; 56]. The intensity threshold of 12.7 mm (\(\sim\)0.5 in), reported in the Revised Universal Soil Erosion Equation (RUSLE) [11], is too high for European conditions. A rainfall event was defined as the rain period separated between proceeding and succeeding rainfall by 6 h or more. The splashed soil particles on the rim of the splash collector were completely washed off and drained into the water collector with rainfall and sediment. In the laboratory, splashed particles were filtered from water and oven-dried at 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The average mass of the splashed soil per each rainfall event was calculated from the three or four replicates, depending on the study site.