How does soil contribute greenhouse gas to the atmosphere?!

Exhaling Dirt

Soil Respiration: ! What is it?! Why is it important?"

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! With a partner, first measure the amount of CO2 released by soil respiration over 24 hours from a chosen patch of soil. Use the experimental design and materials described in your handout to measure the CO2. ! Over the course of three days, increase the amount of daily CO2 released by your patch of soil by changing a single condition. Find a way to accurately measure the condition you are changing. ! Now, over three more days, increase the daily CO2 release rate even more by changing multiple soil conditions on your chosen plot. Again, record detailed measurements of the conditions you are changing. ! Collaborate between groups in order to achieve the class challenge of having 8 out of 10 groups succeed in raising their soil respiration rate. %

Hints/Considerations: ! What are some of the conditions that might affect soils respiration rate? Think about the microorganisms that are responsible for releasing the CO2. ! How will you design a method to change/control one condition? Multiple conditions? ! How will you accurately measure the conditions you change? ! How can you be sure that changes in your rates of CO2 are due to the condition that you changed? ! Should your experiment include a control to account for natural environmental variations? ! Compare your data with other groups during and after the experiments.
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Final Questions: ! What factors had the most significant impact on CO2 release rates? Why do these conditions influence soil respiration? Create a graph showing how CO2 release changed in response to the conditions you altered. ! Were there any initial differences in the soil patches that different groups chose to test? How might that have affected differences in measured CO2 between groups? ! What challenges did your group face in the design and execution of your experiments? What were the greatest sources of possible inaccuracy in your data and results? ! How do the conditions you were manipulating relate to agricultural practices? What kinds of agricultural practices could dramatically increase the respiration rate of soil? ! How might environmentally conscientious farmers change their agricultural practices to minimize greenhouse gas release from their fields, and yet still be able to grow their crops successfully?