Respiration CO2 and N2O emission from grassland ecosystems

Abstract

Cropland ecosystems cover approximately 45% of Europe, and thus play an important role in the overall greenhouse gases (GHGs) budget of the continent. However, the estimation of their emissions remains an uncertain issue due to the diversity of environment and climatic factors as well as the crop structure acute influence of human the management. Based on the continuous observation of soil-plant respiration and environmental factors in a several crop ecosystems from early June to early July in 2011, the spatial and temporal variation of soilplant respiration and their controlling factors was analyzed. A survey was conducted to identify important criteria, and several crop fields were treated.The research was conducted on the local measurement and comparing the impact of environment physical indices on agro ecosystems productivity at crop habitat scale. The research was conducted in intensive grassland, barely, winter wheat and maize ecosystems of the conventional farm (54o28′ N, 23o38′ E, Kalvarija distr., Lithuania). The data have been collected in a real time using the digital sensors of humidity, pressure, gas concentration, solar intensity, wind speed and temperature. The relationships between the analysed physical data and agrochemical productivity indices were evaluated with the respect to the stages of plant growth. The research covered both productive grasslands (i.e. manure and chemical fertilizing) and various crop fields of different geographical location. The measurement of soil factors that impact fluid storage and transport, viz. compaction, enabled to establish certain quality indicators for sustainable crop management systems.