- Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lublin, Poland (a.walkiewicz@ipan.lublin.pl)
The physical parameters of soils strongly influence the gas exchange between the soil and the atmosphere. Soil texture may control greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or absorption through different mechanisms. On the one hand, soils with different textures create various conditions for soil microorganisms activity and growth. Higher content of clay in soils improves nutrients storage due to larger cation exchange capacity often resulting in higher microbial biomass and enhanced enzymatic activity. In addition, through the distribution of micropores, soil texture regulates water storage capacity, gases diffusion and their availability for microorganisms. In consequence, silty soils often are richer in nutrients, while sandy soil are better aerated and with gas diffusion occurring more easily, controlling soil processes differently. By regulating gases diffusion, including O2 availability, and creating anaerobic parts, texture strongly determines the soil processes responsible for GHG emissions or uptake.
Field studies on GHG exchange were carried out in agricultural soils of different textures under grasslands and under different crops cultivation. The widely accepted chamber method was used to assess GHG emissions or consumption over two growing seasons. The results showed that among the three key GHGs (CO2, CH4, N2O), soil texture particularly controlled the uptake of atmospheric CH4. Seasonally, sandy soils consumed several times more CH4 than silty soils due to higher gases diffusion, which was also regulated by soil moisture. The studies carried out provide valuable quantitative results on key GHG emissions, allowing their balance to be estimated in soils of different textures.
Funding
This work was funded by the ReLive project (CIRCULARITY/61/ReLive/2022) financed by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development within the Joint Call of the Co-fund ERA-Net Programme.
References:
Hamarashid, N.H. et al., 2010. Effect of soil texture on chemical compositions, microbial populations and carbon mineralization in soil. Egypt. J. Exp. Biol. 6, 59–64; Costa, K.H., Groffman, P.M., 2013. Factors regulating net methane flux by soils in urban forests and grasslands. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 77 (3), 850–855
How to cite: Walkiewicz, A.: Soil texture as a strong regulator of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16065, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16065, 2025.
