School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-9-2026
Abstract
Agrivoltaic systems are expanding in semi-arid regions, raising questions about how panel driven shading alters soil greenhouse gas exchange. We used automated chambers to measure high frequency soil CO2, N2O, and CH4 fluxes in a newly established vineyard agrivoltaic system in Texas across three shading intensities (0%, 35%, 88%) that represent the light environment beneath panels as shaped by panel tilt and solar trajectory. Shading primarily cooled the soil, reducing mean soil temperature from 35.9 °C (0%) to 32.5 °C (35%) and 30.5 °C (88%), while mean soil water content shifted modestly (0.125, 0.106, and 0.130 m3 m−3, respectively). Over three months, cumulative soil CO2 emissions declined from 3.2 Mg C ha−1 (0%) to 2.6 (35%) and 2.2 Mg C ha−1 (88%). N2O emissions were dominated by rainfall driven pulses and were lowest under 35% shade (0.15 kg N ha−1) without increasing under 88% shade relative to full sun (∼0.17 kg N ha−1). All soils were net CH4 sinks, with greater uptake under shaded treatments (−0.78 to −0.77 kg C ha−1) than under full sun (−0.24 kg C ha−1). In CO2 equivalents, shading reduced net emissions by 0.62 and 1.02 Mg CO2 eq ha−1 under 35% and 88% shade, corresponding to 18.9% and 31.2% reductions. These results show that agrivoltaic shading can lower net soil GHG forcing in semi-arid viticulture by buffering soil temperature extremes, suppressing CO2 losses, and strengthening the methane sink without increasing cumulative N2O emissions.
Recommended Citation
Gomes da Silva, Marcelo, Rafael M. Almeida, Carine Cocco, and Engil Pereira. "Agrivoltaic shading reduces soil greenhouse gas fluxes in a semi-arid vineyard." Environmental Research Communications (2026). https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ae753a
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Environmental Research Communications
DOI
10.1088/2515-7620/ae753a
Comments
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.