The Effect of Soil Tillage Systems on Carbon Dioxide Emissions Released From Soil

Soil tillage is among the factors which affect the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions released from soil into the atmosphere. The objective of the study was to compare three tillage systems which overall represents the most commonly used systems. No-tillage, reduced tillage (shallow disc cultivation) performed by LEMKEN Rubin 9/600 KU disc cultivator and ploughing performed by LEMKEN EuroDiamant 8 mouldboard plough. Experimental area was divided into three replications of each tillage treatment as a randomized block design and the effect of soil tillage intensity on CO2 emissions were observed in field conditions by using ACE device (Automated Soil CO2 Exchange Station, ADC Bio-Scientific Ltd., UK). There were found an effect of soil tillage intensity on CO2 emissions released from soil into the atmosphere. Increasing tillage intensity resulted in increasing rate of CO2 emissions released from soil into the atmosphere where reduced tillage was reflected as 43% and ploughing as114% of this escalation. The results of our study supporting the more ecological effects of reduced tillage and no-tillage systems in comparison with widespread conventional systems by using mouldboard ploughs.