Soil N2O, CH4, and CO2 Fluxes in Forest, Grassland, and Tillage/No-Tillage Croplands in French Guiana (Amazonia)

The agricultural landscape of French Guiana (Amazonia) is expected to undergo substantial change as a result of rapid population growth in the region. Such changes in the landscape will lead to the conversion of tropical forests into land destined for agricultural use. Little information is available on the effect of different agricultural systems on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in French Guiana. For our experiment, two hectares of forest were cleared, without the use of fire, at the Combi experimental site (sandy-clayey Ferralsol) at the end of 2008. After one year with legume and grass cover, the site was modified to include the following three fertilized agricultural systems: (1) Grassland (Brachiaria ruziziensis, mowed), (2) cropland (maize/soybean rotation) with disc tillage, and (3) cropland (maize/soybean rotation) with no-tillage in direct seeding. Soil N2O, CH4, and CO2 fluxes were measured with dark chambers from May 2011 to November 2014. Our results show that grassland was a significantly lower emitter of N2O but a significantly higher emitter of CH4 compared to the two cropland systems studied. We did not observe significant differences between the two cropland systems for N2O and CH4 fluxes. Measurements of the net ecosystem CO2 exchange would be useful to better compare the role of different agricultural systems as a source of GHGs.