EGU21-1256
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1256
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Using an advanced robotic chamber system to detect spatio-temporal short-term responses in measured CO2 exchange to soil manipulation and N fertilization

Mathias Hoffmann1, Shrijana Vaidya1, Marten Schmidt1, Norbert Bonk2, Peter Rakowski2, Gernot Verch2, Michael Sommer1,3, and Jürgen Augustin1
Mathias Hoffmann et al.
  • 1Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Program Area I , Müncheberg, Germany
  • 2Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Experimental Infrastructure Platform , Dedelow, Germany
  • 3University of Potsdam, Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, Potsdam, Germany

Improved agricultural practices sequestering additional atmospheric C within the soil are considered as one of the potential solution for mitigating global climate change. However, agricultural used landscapes are complex and their capacity to sequester additional atmospheric C differs substantially in time and space. Hence, accurate and precise information on the complex spatio-temporal CO2 flux pattern is needed to evaluate the effects/benefits of new agricultural practices aiming towards increasing soil organic carbon.

To date, different approaches are used to measure and quantify CO2 flux dynamics of agricultural landscapes, such as e.g. eddy covariance, as well as manual and automatic chamber systems. However, all these methods fail to some extend in either accounting for small scale spatial heterogeneity (e.g., eddy covariance and automatic chambers) or short-term temporal variability (e.g., manual chambers). Although, automatic chambers are in principle capable to detect small-scale spatial differences of CO2 flux dynamics in a sufficient temporal resolution, these systems are usually limited to only a few spatial repetitions which is not sufficient to represent small scale soil heterogeneity such as present within the widespread hummocky ground moraine landscape of NE-Germany.

To overcome these challenges, we developed a novel robotic chamber system. This system was used to detect small-scale spatial heterogeneity and short-term temporal variability of CO2 flux dynamics in a full factorial experimental setup for a range of three different soil types, two N fertilization forms (2; mineral vs. organic) and two soil manipulation status, representing two different tillage practices. Here, we present measured CO2 flux dynamics and cumulative emissions for the 3 repetitions of the 12 randomized treatments (36 subplots) directly following soil manipulation and N fertilization during summer 2020. Our results show distinct differences between the three measured soil types as well as a clear response of all three soil types to conducted soil manipulation, yielding in significantly lower ecosystem respiration (Reco) and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) for manipulated vs. non-manipulated subplots. No clear difference, however, was obtained in case of N fertilization.

How to cite: Hoffmann, M., Vaidya, S., Schmidt, M., Bonk, N., Rakowski, P., Verch, G., Sommer, M., and Augustin, J.: Using an advanced robotic chamber system to detect spatio-temporal short-term responses in measured CO2 exchange to soil manipulation and N fertilization, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-1256, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1256, 2021.

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