Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Bowen Ratio Energy Balance Measurement Of Carbon Dioxide (Co2) Fluxes Of No-Till And Conventional Tillage Agriculture In Lesotho, Debra Blumberg O'Dell, Thomas J. Sauer, Bruce B. Hicks, Dayton M. Lambert, David R. Smith, Wendy Bruns, August Basson, Makoala V. Marake, Forbes Walker, Michael D. Wilcox Jr., Neal Samuel Eash

Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science Publications and Other Works

Global food demand requires that soils be used intensively for agriculture, but how these soils are managed greatly impacts soil fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Soil management practices can cause carbon to be either sequestered or emitted, with corresponding uncertain influence on atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. The situation is further complicated by the lack of CO₂ flux measurements for African subsistence farms. For widespread application in remote areas, a simple experimental methodology is desired. As a first step, the present study investigated the use of Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) instrumentation to measure the energy balance and …