An Assessment of Soil Carbon Efflux between Agroecosystem and Forest Ecosystem at Indo-Gangetic Plains and Vindhyan Highland, India

Abstract

Abstract
Assessing the effect of land-use changes on soil (Carbon di-oxide) CO2 efflux is imperative to understand the interactions between belowground metabolism and regional carbon budgets. In this study daytime soil CO2 efflux from agriculture and forest ecosystem in Indo-Gangetic plains and Vindhyan highland were measured through Li-cor 6400. The relationship between the soil temperature, soil moisture and soil CO2 efflux of these two zones along with soil properties were also investigated. A relatively high correlation between soil CO2 effluxes and moisture was found (R2=0.74, P=0.001), however no relation observed between soil temperature and soil CO2 efflux. The magnitude of the daytime soil CO2 efflux varied from 1.6–2.6 μmol m-2 s-1 and 0.3–1.5 μmol m-2 s-1for the agriculture and forest zones, respectively. Soil respiration rates in the agriculture ecosystem were 89% higher than the forest sites, showed its poor capability in sequestering soil carbon. In the present study, rate of soil respiration is determined predominantly by soil moisture, not by soil temperature. Moreover, soil CO2 efflux from the forest zone is more sensitive to changes in soil moisture than that from the agriculture ecosystem.
Keywords: Agriculture, carbon, soil moisture, soil respiration, Vindhyan highland

Cite this Article
Manoj Kumar, Vartika Singh, Hema Singh. An Assessment of Soil Carbon Efflux between Agroecosystem and Forest Ecosystem at Indo-Gangetic Plains and Vindhyan Highland, India. Research and Reviews: Journal of Botany. 2016; 5(2): 27–35p.