The impact of soil tillage on CO₂ emission: Results of a comparative study

This study assessed the effect of soil tillage (loosening) on CO2 emissions due to soil microbial respiration in a small-plot experiment with green manure planting. During the 2024 growing season, soil and air temperature and humidity, CO 2 emissions were assessed using the "chamber method" before and after soil loosening. It was found that the soil temperature at a depth of 5 cm and 10 cm, as well as soil moisture and air temperature had a similar trend. The respiratory activity increased by the middle of the vegetation experiment and was maximum (0.072 and 0.102 g*C m-2 h-1 for the soil before and after loosening) at high soil temperature (25°C) and air temperature (26.2°C), as well as high soil moisture (13.4%) and air humidity (54.5%). It then decreased by the end of the experiment by 99.5% and 76.4%, respectively. It was shown that tillage leads to an increase in CO 2 emissions by 1.0 to 78.9 times, with the maximum increase observed at the beginning and middle of the growing season. Since both temperature and moisture determine the activity of the soil microbial community, a linear correlation between CO 2 emissions and soil temperature, or between CO 2 emissions and moisture, was not established.