ABSTRACT There is a need to quantify agriculture’s potential to sequester carbon (C) to inform global approaches aimed at mitigating climate change effects. Many factors including climate, crop, soil management practices, and soil type can influence the contribution of agriculture to the global carbon cycle. The objective of this study was to investigate the C sequestration potential of conservation agriculture (CA) (defined by minimal soil disturbance, maintaining permanent soil cover, and crop rotations). This study used micrometeorological methods to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) flux from several alternative CA practices in Harare, central Zimbabwe. Micrometeorological methods can detect differences in total CO2 emissions of agricultural management practices; our results show that CA practices produce less CO2 emissions. Over three years of measurement, the mean and standard error (SE) of CO2 emissions for the plot with the most consistent CA practices was 0.564 ± 0.0122 g CO2 m−2 h−1, significantly less than 0.928 ± 0.00859 g CO2 m−2 h−1 for the conventional tillage practice. Overall CA practices of no-till with the use of cover crops produced fewer CO2 emissions than conventional tillage and fallow.

中文翻译：

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保护性农业作为津巴布韦气候变化减缓战略

摘要 需要量化农业固碳 (C) 的潜力，以便为旨在减轻气候变化影响的全球方法提供信息。许多因素，包括气候、作物、土壤管理实践和土壤类型，都会影响农业对全球碳循环的贡献。本研究的目的是调查保护性农业 (CA) 的碳封存潜力（定义为最小土壤扰动、保持永久土壤覆盖和作物轮作）。本研究使用微气象学方法测量来自津巴布韦中部哈拉雷的几种替代 CA 实践的二氧化碳 (CO2) 通量。微气象方法可以检测农业管理实践中二氧化碳排放总量的差异；我们的结果表明，CA 实践产生的二氧化碳排放量更少。在三年的测量中，具有最一致 CA 实践的地块的 CO2 排放的平均值和标准误差 (SE) 为 0.564 ± 0.0122 g CO2 m-2 h-1，显着小于 0.928 ± 0.00859 g CO2 m-2 h-1 用于常规耕作实践。与传统耕作和休耕相比，使用覆盖作物免耕的总体 CA 实践产生的二氧化碳排放量更少。