Journal of Rangeland

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The increasing rate of greenhouse gases release such as carbon dioxide from soil to the atmosphere posed serious concerns in the world over the past few decades. Carbon dioxide gas is identified as one of the important factors responsible for accelerating greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change. Closed chamber method was used to evaluate the effects of various grazing pressure on the rate of carbon dioxide emission. The amount of CO₂ emission was measured on a monthly bases for a period of one year in Ghoshchi Rangelands of Urmia, West Azerbaijan province. The factorial analysis revealed that severe grazing pressure leads to the highest mean of carbon dioxide production (4.2 g/m ² / day). The highest average amount of carbon dioxide was produced in August and July (4.42 and 4.13 g/m²/day). The lowest CO₂ production was observed in February and December (0.51 and 0.55) in grazing exclusion site. Increasing soil microorganisms activity is responsible for increasing CO₂ emission. Severe trampling in the highly grazed sites leads to an increase in the compactness of soil surface and erosion, and alter the water content and temperature of the soil surface and ultimately increase CO₂ omission. This study highlights the impacts of severe grazing pressure on CO₂ omission; hence, policymakers and range managers should take specific management practices to reduce grazing pressure to prevent CO₂ accumulation in the atmosphere.
 

Keywords: Grazing Intensities, Carbon dioxide, enclosure, closed chamber method.

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