Influence of Reduced Tillage, Fertilizer Placement, and Soil Afforestation on CO<sub>2</sub> Emission from Arable Sandy Soils

oleh: Tomasz Sosulski, Tomasz Niedziński, Tamara Jadczyszyn, Magdalena Szymańska

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-12-01

Deskripsi

Extreme meteorological phenomena resulting from climate change caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) require the implementation of CO<sub>2</sub> mitigation practices from various industries, including agriculture. Owing to varying soil, climatic, and agrotechnical characteristics, they may have different efficiencies in mitigating soil CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of three mitigation practices (reduced tillage, deep fertilizer placement, and soil afforestation) on CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from sandy soils in Central and Eastern Europe allowing the prediction of the mitigation effectiveness of these methods. The average soil CO<sub>2</sub>-C flux under a moldboard plow system ranged from 218.4 ± 108.4 to 263.7 ± 176.6 mg CO<sub>2</sub>-C m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> and under a reduced tillage system ranged from 169.7 ± 118.7 to 163.6 ± 115.2 mg CO<sub>2</sub>-C m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> in a year with normal meteorological conditions and under extreme drought conditions, respectively. In the dry growing season, similar amounts of CO<sub>2</sub>-C were released from the soil fertilized to the soil surface and after mineral fertilizers application at a depth of 10 cm and 20 cm (133.7 ± 155.8, 132.0 ± 147.5 and 131.0 ± 148.1 mg CO<sub>2</sub>-C m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup>, respectively). Meanwhile, from the forest soil, the average CO<sub>2</sub>-C emission in the dry growing season was 123.3 ± 79 mg CO<sub>2</sub>-C m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup>. The obtained results revealed that reduced tillage on sandy soil allowed for reduced CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from the soil by 28.7–61.2% in normal and drought weather, respectively. Under drought conditions, deep fertilizer placement did not reduce CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from sandy soil, and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from forest soils were even higher than from arable soils.