Forage Grass in Static Gas Exchange Chambers Deployed In Southern Amazon Influences Field Measurement of Soil N2O Emissions

Abstract

Static chambers are used to estimate the exchange of greenhouse gases between the soil and the atmosphere, but the presence of plants inside such chambers can alter gas fluxes. This study aimed to determine the influence of forage grass on N2O fluxes emanating from an oxisol in the southern Amazon region of Brazil. A randomized experiment comprising two treatments, namely static gas exchange Chambers with Grass (CWG) and Chambers with No Grass (CNG) with six replicates of each was performed to determine N2O fluxes over a period of one year. Soil N2O fluxes in the CWG were higher (19.08 µg N2O-N m-2 h-1) than those in the CNG (9.05 µg N2O-N m-2 h-1), most especially during the wet season. Cumulative N2O emissions were 1.60 and 0.72 kg N2O-N ha-1 for the CWG and CNG, respectively. The higher N2O estimates in the CWG may be attributed to the plant transpiration stream and/or to changes in soil attributes induced by the plants. Measurement of N2O emissions from a grass-covered oxisol inside gas exchange chambers may overestimate soil N2O flux in the tropical humid climate of the Southern Amazon.