Impacts of low-level liming on soil respiration and forage production in a fertilized upland grassland in Central France.

Liming is a common agricultural practice for improving acidic soils, but the addition of liming materials may also promote soil carbon dioxide (CO) emissions, with adverse effects for climate regulation. In grasslands, current understanding of liming impacts on greenhouse gas emissions is limited by a lack of field data on liming and soil respiration. Here we used a two-year field trial and in situ chamber measurements to evaluate the effects of repeated, low-level liming on soil CO emissions from an acidic managed grassland with high soil organic matter content.