Soil respiration

As soil respiration is a summary of the respiration of microorganisms in the soil and the roots called. The contribution of root respiration is estimated to be less than 30%, the contribution of the microbes at least 70 %, the proportion of the ground animals to be very low.

As with any breathing process is thereby oxygen ( O2) was added and carbon dioxide ( CO2) emitted. In general, the produced carbon dioxide is used as a measure for the soil respiration. Thus, the soil respiration is an important component of the carbon cycle, because through it, much of the captured by plants through photosynthesis carbon after the death of the plants is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Soil respiration is dependent on many factors, including the soil temperature and humidity, the amount of organic material present and the mineral content in the soil. Climate-induced changes in soil respiration in transition outweigh the influence of other factors (such as fertilizers or pesticides) often significantly.