No-tillage lessens soil CO2 emissions the most under arid and sandy soil conditions: results from a meta-analysis

Abdalla, K and Chivenge, P and Ciais, P and Chaplot, V (2016) No-tillage lessens soil CO2 emissions the most under arid and sandy soil conditions: results from a meta-analysis. Biogeosciences, 13. pp. 3619-3633. ISSN 1726-4170

[img]
Preview
PDF (It is an Open Access article) - Published Version
Download (810kB) | Preview

Abstract

The management of agroecosystems plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle with soil tillage leading to known organic carbon redistributions within soils and changes in soil CO2 emissions. Yet, discrepancies exist on the impact of tillage on soil CO2 emissions and on the main soil and environmental controls. A meta-analysis was conducted using 46 peer-reviewed publications totaling 174 paired observations comparing CO2 emissions over entire seasons or years from tilled and untilled soils across different climates, crop types and soil conditions with the objective of quantifying tillage impact on CO2 emissions and assessing the main controls. On average, tilled soils emitted 21% more CO2 than untilled soils, which corresponded to a significant difference at P<0:05. The difference increased to 29% in sandy soils from arid climates with low soil organic carbon content (SOCC < 1 %) and low soil moisture, but tillage had no impact on CO2 fluxes in clayey soils with high background SOCC (> 3 %). Finally, nitrogen fertilization and crop residue management had little effect on the CO2 responses of soils to no-tillage. These results suggest no-tillage is an effective mitigation measure of carbon dioxide losses from dry land soils. They emphasize the importance of including information on soil factors such as texture, aggregate stability and organic carbon content in global models of the carbon cycle.

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Research Program : Innovation Systems for the Drylands (ISD)
CRP: CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems
Uncontrolled Keywords: CO2 emissions, Soil, Soil conditions, No tillage, Soil properties
Subjects: Others > Soil
Others > CO2 emissions
Others > Soil Science
Depositing User: Mr Ramesh K
Date Deposited: 29 Jul 2016 09:15
Last Modified: 22 Feb 2017 09:57
URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/9597
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3619-2016
Projects: UNSPECIFIED
Funders: UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement: This article is published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.
Links:
View Statistics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item