Soil structure formation and management effects on gas emission

The aim of this paper is to clarify the effect of soil management and thus also of soil aggregation on physical and chemical properties of structured soils both on a bulk soil scale, for single aggregates, as well as for homogenized material. Aggregate formation and aggregate strength depend on swelling and shrinkage processes and on biological activity and kinds of organic exudates as well as on the intensity, number and time of swelling and drying events. Thus, soil management like conventional or conservation tillage alter not only the mechanical strength but also the pore continuity and the hydraulic, gas and heat fluxes, and also alter the accessibility of exchange places for nutrients and for carbon storage (global change aspects). The possibility to predict physical properties on these various scales depends on the rigidity of the pore system. In general this rigidity depends on the above-mentioned physical and chemical processes both with respect to intensity and frequency, which again are linked to the soil management systems.