Effects of Environmental Drivers and Agricultural Management on Soil CO2 and N2O Emissions

Understanding the roles of natural drivers and anthropogenic activities in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of arable fields is crucial for adopting the most appropriate agricultural management. This study investigated the effect of two tillage treatments of mouldboard ploughing (MP) and no-tillage (NT), and the environmental factors (soil water content and temperature, carbon content and nitrogen forms) on soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The research was conducted on chernozem soil under winter wheat cultivation. Besides field monitoring, several laboratory experiments took place to examine the effects of environmental drivers and fertilization management on soil GHG emissions. We observed no significant difference between the CO2 emission of MP and NT during a full year period. Nevertheless, significant differences were found in the sub-periods (more particularly during vegetation and then after harvest). NT had higher CO2 emission than MP in all laboratory experiments (p < 0.001) and in the after harvest period of the field trial, measured on bare soil (p < 0.0001). NT had significantly higher N2O emission both under laboratory (p < 0.0001) and field conditions (p < 0.0081). Different fertilization showed no distinguishable effect on N2O emission in the laboratory. This study confirms that N2O emission of the arable field depended more on soil water content than soil temperature, and vice-versa for CO2 emission.

Automated summary

Understanding the roles of natural drivers and anthropogenic activities in greenhouse gas emissions of arable fields is crucial for adopting appropriate agricultural management practices. This study found that the impact of mouldboard ploughing and no-tillage on CO2 emissions did not differ significantly over a full year, but varied in different sub-periods. No-tillage had a higher impact on both CO2 and N2O emissions compared to mouldboard ploughing.