Different management strategies exert distinct influences on microclimate of soil-atmosphere system in tea fields

Agricultural management strategies are crucial in regulating the soil-atmosphere interaction. The crop landscape is influenced by farmers through different field practices, and further impacts the variations of soil temperature, soil moisture, and field microclimate. To examine how different management strategies affect the soil properties and the aforementioned interaction, two observation systems were installed in an organic-certified (ORG) tea field and a conventional (CONV) tea field in northern Taiwan. The results show that the variation of canopy temperature was more significant in CONV while the difference in soil diurnal temperature range was minor. However, the daily loss rate of soil water content in ORG was two times faster than that in CONV (0.93% d−1 vs. 0.46% d−1). These findings suggest that the appropriate management strategies could assist farmers in adapting to environmental fluctuations and provide quantitative references for assessing soil characteristics under different agricultural applications and climatic conditions.