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Semicontinuous Measurement of Soil Atmosphere Gases with Gas‐Flow Soil Core Method
Author(s) -
Swerts M.,
Uytterhoeven G.,
Merckx R.,
Vlassak K.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1995.03615995005900050020x
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , soil gas , denitrification , chemistry , production (economics) , core (optical fiber) , environmental science , soil science , nitrogen , analytical chemistry (journal) , volumetric flow rate , environmental chemistry , soil water , materials science , physics , meteorology , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , composite material , macroeconomics , economics
To study denitrification, a method was developed for simultaneous measurement of CO 2 , N 2 , N 2 O, and NO production in soil cores. The technique does not interfere with biochemical processes in the soil and is fully automated to enable highly time‐resolved measurements for prolonged periods. Soil cores (intact or repacked) are connected to individual gas‐tight circuits (up to nine). Gas is continuously circulated through the soil cores to avoid diffusional problems. Each individual circuit can be automatically sampled for chromatographic gas analysis. The N 2 O production rates can be measured accurately down to 0.04 µg N kg −1 measuring interval −1 (MI). Determination of N 2 , CO 2 , and O 2 production rates is less sensitive: 0.09 mg N kg −1 MI −1 , 0.04 mg C kg −1 MI −1 , and 0.02 mg O kg −1 MI −1 , respectively. Dynamically changing gas production rates are monitored accurately, and total N gas production under anaerobiosis is balanced by NO 3 − disappearance.