Premium
Carbon Dioxide Flux Measurement During Simulated Tillage
Author(s) -
Wuest Stewart B.,
Durr Daniel,
Albrecht Stephan L.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj2003.7150
Subject(s) - tillage , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , topsoil , soil science , carbon dioxide , conventional tillage , atmospheric sciences , agronomy , soil water , materials science , chemistry , physics , biology , organic chemistry , metallurgy
Measurement of tillage effects often includes CO 2 flux from soil before and after tillage. Our objective was to create a device to measure CO 2 flux continuously before, during, and after a simulated tillage operation. We put an auger inside a chamber to till the soil while monitoring CO 2 flux. We tested three soil conditions. First, cores stored long‐term produced large peaks immediately after tillage followed by a steady rate decay. Second, simulated tillage in a summer fallow field produced a more modest peak, a rapid return to pretillage rate, and then a gradual climb in CO 2 flux rate over the next 10 min. The third soil condition, having sterilized topsoil, produced a peak and then immediately returned to the pretillage flux rate. We conclude that continuous monitoring before, during, and after tillage will be important for proper interpretation of flux data.