Soil carbon dioxide emissions from maize (Zea mays L.) fields as influenced by tillage management and climate*

Abstract

Emissions of CO2 from the soil are the second‐largest component of the global carbon cycle, which has altered the climate and led to climate change. The main aim of this research was to evaluate the direct impact of climate and soil management systems on soil carbon emissions. Thus, CO2 emissions were measured from maize fields located in two different climate regions (continental and semi‐arid). The experimental design involved two different soil management systems (conventional tillage [CT], non‐tillage [NT]) from two different sites (Debrecen [Hungary], Karaj [Iran]). The results showed that total CO2 emission from the cultivated system (CT) was higher than that from the non‐cultivated (NT) one, regardless of the climate region. However, CO2 emissions from agricultural soil in a humid region are significantly different (p < .05) from semi‐arid regions, which clearly emphasizes the role of climate conditions in the CO2 emission processes. However, the general linear model reveals that all studied variables (soil management systems, date of measurement, soil temperature, soil water content) had a significant (p < .05) effect on soil carbon emission, where the explained variance was 0.866. The findings of this research stress the importance of NT in CO2 mitigations on the farm scale. However, the output could help to draw up mitigation strategies to minimize the total greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soil in both countries.

Combination of Limited Meteorological Data for Predicting Reference Crop Evapotranspiration Using Artificial Neural Network Method

“…The mean annual potential evapotranspiration was 918 mm year −1 , though in the first decade of the 1900s, it was 883 mm year −1 , while in the first decade of the 2000s, it was 953 mm year −1 . In terms of land use, the proportion of arable land was about 50% of the total area, with maize and wheat among the main crops [50].…”

Soil respiration during three cropping cycles of durum wheat under different tillage conditions in a Mediterranean environment

“…At the beginning of each cycle of measurements, the day before the starting of monitoring, four collars for each of the four selected replicates (two plots for NT treatment and two plots for RT treatment) were placed into the soil between rows to reduce the soil disturbance during the measurements. Following the guidelines reported in Parkin and Venterea (2010) and adopted by other authors for this kind of study (Mohammed et al, 2021), for each day of sampling, F CO2 measurements were carried out between 10:00 AM and 12:00 AM, when soil temperatures were expected to represent average daily values (Chylek et al, 2018). The chamber deployment time was no longer than 4 min, the time for obtaining the steady state of CO 2 concentration in the chamber.…”

“…The complex relationship between the main factors influencing CO 2 emissions (climatic conditions, soil properties, soil management, etc.) and the inconsistency in the data published in individual studies limit the chance to reveal the effect of different soil tillage practice on GHGs mitigation: meta‐analysis can try to solve this issue (Shakoor et al, 2021, 2022), even if comparative studies under different conditions are needed in order to extend the data set for further understanding the actual mitigation effects (Alskaf et al, 2021; Mohammed et al, 2021).…”

Novel Approach for Statistical Interpretation: A Case Study from Long-Term Crop Production Experiments (Hungary)

“…Data were collected from Látókép Experimental Site of the University of Debrecen (47 • 33 N, 21 • 26 E, 11 m) in eastern Hungary (Figure 1) [34]. The experimental site was established in 1983 to be the core of agricultural research in the eastern part of Hungary.…”