Response of soil respiration rate of alfalfa grassland to cutting treatment

Abstract: Present study measured the diurnal dynamics of soil respiration in alfalfa grassland with different cutting treatment in the Loess Plateau by using closed chamber infrared CO2 gas analyzer, and further analyzed the relationships between soil respiration and soil temperature, atmospheric humidity, air temperature. The results showed that cutting treatment significantly decreased diurnal CO2 emission（P0.01） compared to no cutting treatment, and cut two times exhibited the lowest diurnal CO2 emission, this implied reasonable cutting treatment could reduce the diurnal emission of CO2. Diurnal soil respiration for all treatments attained the lowest value at 06:00, but the peak value time varied with cutting treatments. The relationships of soil respiration rate and 5 cm soil temperature、soil respiration rate and air temperature、soil respiration rate and atmospheric humidity could be described as an exponential function、unary quadratic equation or a negative linear equation, respectively.