Variations of soil respiration under different tillage systems

Agricultural soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Depending on how they are managed, they may act as both a source and a sink of carbon and should therefore, be considered in the climate change debate. The objective of this work is to assess the short-term variabilities of soil respiration derived from different soil tillage systems: conventional tillage, reduced tillage and no tillage. During April and May 2010 the soil respiration was measured in short time intervals on two long-term soil tillage experiment sites in Lower Austria using a closed dynamic chamber system (SRC-1 and EGM-4, PP Systems). The present book offers the results of that experiment, as well as an interpretation of the most controlling and influencing factors of the measured soil respiration and its variations.