Variations of Soil Respiration Under Different Tillage Systems: Short-term Measurements of Soil Carbon Dioxide Efflux from Two Agricultural Sites in Lower Austria

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.