Comparison of soil carbon dioxide emission between controlled and random traffic under conservation tillage

Conservation tillage is proven to be a useful agricultural practice for reducing the concentration of CO2 released to the atmosphere, but there is currently only limited information regarding the influences of controlled traffic on soil CO2 fluxes. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of controlled traffic on soil CO2 flux and on fuel consumption in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) croplands of northern China. CO2 samples were collected from various compacted areas in the fields, including the crop zone, the inter-row zone and the traffic zone. CO2 flux from the soil surface was measured with a GXH-3010E1 CO2 infrared analyzer during the crop grain filling stage. CO2 fluxes were considerably larger for controlled traffic field (95.04±6.79) g/(m2·d) than that for random traffic field (50.91±7.57) g/(m2·d) in the crop zone, but there were no significant differences between random and controlled traffic fields in the inter-row zone. In contrast, in the traffic zone, all fluxes were lower than those in the other areas. Total CO2 fluxes were not significantly different between controlled traffic and random traffic fields. Controlled traffic can reduce fuel consumption by 9.7 L/hm2 compared to random traffic, which implies that it can also reduce the total annual amount of CO2 released from agricultural activities. Keywords: conservation tillage, controlled traffic, random traffic, CO2 flux, fuel consumption DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.2009.02.008-013