Impact of human activities on soil respiration: A review

Soil respiration is one of the primary fluxes of carbon between soils and the atmosphere. It is produced by rhizosphere respiration and soil microbial respiration. Soil respiration is not only affected by environmental factors, but also changes with the human-induced disturbances of ecosystems. Land-use, the measures of land management, the pollution of soil, and so on can affect soil respiration and change the soil efflux. According to some research, the authors summed up their impacts on soil respiration by human activities through land-use changes and land-management measures among agroecosystem, grassland ecosystem, and forest ecosystem. The results showed that (1) when adding fertilization to farmland, the soil respiration will increase; (2) fenced land can decrease soil respiration, while soil respiration in the grazed land at a grassland ecosystem will decline with the increasing of grazing intensity; (3) with grassland fertilization; farmland cultivation; fire, fertilization, and cutting of forest, conflicting results were found in the changes of soil respiration. Perhaps plant species, site condition, and measurement season can lead to different results on soil respiration.