Effect of measuring method and plant growth on soil respiration

Plant root activities and measuring methods play a key role in the study of soil respiration in the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle. This study was used to study the effect of plant roots and measuring methods on soil respiration rate, determined by both dynamic chamber-IRGA and static chamber-GC methods, in the wheat field. At the same time, the difference of two methods for measuring soil respiration was compared, too. The results showed that, soil respiration rates were significantly higher in the treatment with roots than root-free treatment. Under the treatment influenced by roots, soil respiration rate measured by static chamber–GC method was higher than by dynamic chamber-IRGA method. However, that determined by dynamic chamber-IRGA method was higher than by static chamber–GC method under the root-free treatment. While there was the significant difference between soil respiration rates determined by two methods, the significant liner relative was found between methods, through which the soil respiration rates measured by two methods could be converted each other.