Papers

Fractal dimension and anisotropy of soil CO2 emission in an agricultural field during fallow

Author: Newton La Scala Jr., Alan Rodrigo Panosso, GenerTadeu Pereira, A. P. Gonzalez e J.G.Vivas-Miranda

Keywords: soil respiration, soil CO2 flux, spatial variability, greenhouse gas

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Summary

The study of soil CO2 emission is a relevant task due to the fact that it is related to many environmental issues, especially the enhanced greenhouse effect. In this work we investigated the spatial variability structure of a bare soil CO2 emission in an area of 80 x 80 m, during twelve different days. Spatial and temporal variability analyses in the 65-point grid indicate that significant spatial heterogeneity is present in most of the days. Fractal dimension values varying from 2 to 2.88 was determined in a direction of 84.3±22.5o, which is close to perpendicular of crop lines. This effect seems to be related to the structure of temporal variability of soil CO2 emission, which presents a complex net of correlation with 83% of grid points connected within the same cluster, also with most of the points aligned perpendicular to crop lines.