Production of CO2 by surface and buried soils of the steppe zone under native and moistened conditions

Modern light chestnut and chestnut soils and their analogues buried under steppe kurgans in the southeastern part of the Russian Plain were studied in order to determine the rates of the CO₂ production by these soils under the native (with the natural moisture content) and moistened (60% of the total water capacity) conditions. It was found that the rates of the CO₂ production by the soil samples in the native state are relatively close to one another and vary from 0.3 to 1.4 μg of C/100 g of soil/h. The rates of the CO₂ production in the moistened state increased by two orders of magnitude for the modern surface soils and by an order of magnitude for the buried soils.