Comparison of Two Chamber Methods for Measuring Soil Trace-gas Fluxes in Bioenergy Cropping Systems

Greenhouse gas emissions from soils are often measured using trace-gas flux chamber techniques without a standardized protocol, raising concerns about measurement accuracy and consistency. To address this, we compared measurements from non-steady-state non-through-flow (NTF) chambers with a non-steady-state through-flow (TF) chamber system in three bioenergy cropping systems located in Wisconsin. Additionally, we investigated the effects of NTF flux calculation method and deployment time on flux measurements. In all cropping systems, when NTF chambers were deployed for 60 min and a linear (LR) flux calculation was used, soil CO₂ and N₂O fluxes were, on average, 18% and 12% lower, respectively, than fluxes measured with a 15 min deployment. Fluxes calculated with the HMR method, a hybrid of non-linear and linear approaches, showed no deployment time effects for CO₂ and N₂O and produced 27-32% higher CO₂ fluxes and 28-33% higher N₂O fluxes in all crops than the LR approach with 60 min deployment. Across all crops, CO₂ fluxes measured with the TF chamber system were higher by 24.4 to 84.9 mg CO₂-C m^-2 h^-1, than fluxes measured with NTF chambers using either flux calculation method. These results suggest NTF chamber deployment time should be shortened if the LR approach is used though detection limits should be considered, and the HMR approach may be more appropriate when long deployment times are necessary. Significant differences in absolute flux values with different chamber types highlight the need for significant effort in determining the accuracy of methods or alternative flux measurement technologies. N₂O fluxes with chamber deployment time for (a) all crops (switchgrass, corn, hybrid poplar) using both linear (LR) and HMR flux calculation methods, (b) each crop individually using LR approach, and (c) each crop individually using HMR approach. Given are seasonal (May-August) means <u>+</u> standard error. Letters indicate significant differences among deployment times (p<0.05, Tukey-Kramer test). Because there were no significant crop x deployment time interactions, significance letters are not shown in (b) and (c).