CO2 emissions in soils in different positions of the ladscape in area cultivated with sugarcane

• Grant number: 04/15213-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2005
• End date: July 31, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Newton La Scala Júnior
• Grantee: Newton La Scala Júnior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The role of greenhouse effect gases in climate change on our planet is reasonably well known, but little is known about the various characteristics of the balance of this gas in the biosphere. Aspects such as temporal and spatial variability, the relationship between soil properties and also how the different practices and strategies used in agriculture affect the emission of this gas are also barely known, especially in tropical environments. In this project we propose to identify the factors that control or are related to the spatial and temporal variability of the emission of soil-atmosphere CO2. The identificationofthese attributes is essential in order to determine forecasting models used in several simulations. Combining the field measurements with the analysis of data in statistical and mathematical models in the laboratory, we will be able to identify the factors which in first approximation will be more closely related to the respiration of soil in the agricultural areas studied. We will consider, in addition to the variation in the form of landscape, variations in physical, chemical, biological and mineralogical attributes of the soil, during a cycle of the cultivation of sugarcane, in an area with a long history of cultivation of this crop. The emissions will be monitored in periods in which the soil will be uncovered and covered by the sugarcane crop, making it possible for us to discover the influence of the various properties on the respiration of the soil on occasions in which microbial activity is the only source of emission (bare soils), but also how much root respiration could be contributing to the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. (AU)