ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effect of No-Till Farming and Straw Mulch
on Spatial Variability of Soil Respiration
in Sloping Cropland
Yingchen Li1, Cuicui Hou1, Qibo Wang1, Yingying Chen1, Jianmin Ma1, Zaman Mohammad2
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1Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China
2Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques
in Food and Agriculture, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency,
Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Submission date: 2016-05-10
Final revision date: 2016-07-17
Acceptance date: 2016-07-18
Publication date: 2016-11-24
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(6):2499-2508
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ABSTRACT
The two major techniques of conservation agriculture – no-till and straw mulch – are widely used
in agricultural activities. Many studies have investigated the response of soil respiration to conservation
agriculture. However, there are few studies estimating soil CO2 emissions in sloping cropland. For this
research we selected typical sloping cropland in China’s semiarid Loess Plateau region. The spatial
heterogeneity of soil respiration under different tillage and straw mulch was investigated using an LI-8100A
soil carbon flux measuring system from October 2013 to September 2014. Soil respiration showed a strong
seasonal pattern under all treatments, with the highest values in July (3.42-8.26 μmol m-2 s-1) and the lowest
in January (0.16-0.33 μmol m-2 s-1). No-till increased soil respiration by increasing soil temperature and
soil moisture, while straw mulch decreased soil moisture and had the tendency to increase annual total
carbon emissions, and straw incorporation had the highest annual total soil carbon emissions (992 g C m-2).
The slope stage had a visible effect on soil respiration, and soil respiration rates increased in the following
order: lower > middle > upper positions under different treatments. The relationship between soil respiration
and soil moisture was linear under all treatments; the exponential model was more suitable for simulating
the relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature. Temperature sensitivity (Q10) values under
different treatments ranged from 1.94 to 2.63, and the difference among tillage and straw mulch treatments
as a whole was not significant. However, the Q10 values had a tendency to decrease from summit to foot in
tillage treatments, and no-tillage would reduce spatial variability of Q10 values.