Basal Edaphic Respiration

The breathing basal edaphic is a measurement similar to the soil respirationbut without taking into account the CO2 production of the grass, i.e. the soil sample is incubated without plant tissue. Therefore, it gives us an idea of the activity microbiological  through the release of CO2 that occurs under certain conditions of temperature and humidity over a period of time.

It is important to bear in mind what is the meaning of the soil atmosphere in different situations.

Basal soil respiration tests are carried out in the laboratory, but nowadays there are devices for carrying them out outside the laboratory, such as the portable Solvita® system.

The measurement can be expressed as CO2 flux in units of kg/m2 or mg C-CO2/kg soil, i.e. ppm C-CO2. Tiloom tests on greens have given values of around 0.2 ppm C-CO2.

In general, CO2 flux ranges in soils from 0.2 kg CO2/m2 to 20 kg CO2/m2 (0.1 ppm to 55 ppm C-CO2); greens assessed by Tiloom have given values of 0.2 ppm C-CO2.

However, the results of basal soil respiration must be obtained and interpreted over a full year. The 80% of respiration may occur in the warmer months (due to its direct relationship with temperature), and thus also the associated N2 mineralisation and release process, although it is also possible that greens with very low values of VWCmay not have these optimal CO2 release values due to the limiting factor of available water.