Abstract:Monitoring decomposition process of crop straw is essential for both soil improvement and carbon sequestration, but it is challenging due to the complexity of straw decomposition products. To address this issue, CO2 emission was used as an indicator to reflect the dynamic characteristics of straw decomposition. In addition, considering the high cost of commercially available CO2 sensors, a monitoring system was designed and developed based on small, low-cost non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensors, environmental sensors, and Arduino. Using the commercial CO2 recorder TR-76Ui as a reference, each low-cost NDIR CO2 sensor was tested and calibrated. The linear regression model of 1 829 data points yielded coefficients of determination (R2) between 0.97 and 0.99, and RMSE between 14.56 μL/L and 56.36 μL/L, indicating good detection accuracy and stability of the low-cost NDIR CO2 sensors. The CO2 concentration inside the straw pile exhibited a periodic variation pattern, which was consistent with temperature variations, and the amplitude of vibration was gradually weakened as the straw dried. This phenomenon reflected the biological rhythm of microbial activity, revealing that the CO2 changes within the straw pile can indicate the decomposition behavior of the straw. The analysis showed that the rate of straw decomposition was positively correlated with temperature and moisture content, with R2 values of 0.8137 and 0.892, respectively. After adjusting the straw moisture content to over 40%, the decomposition rate rapidly declined and stabilized by the fourth day. When microbial inoculants were added, the decomposition rate was significantly decreased on the seventh day and stabilized by the twelfth day. Throughout the monitoring period, the sensors exhibited no significant drift and maintained good stability. The detection accuracy met the analytical needs of straw decomposition experiments, and the small, low-cost hardware showed great potential for widespread application in dynamic straw decomposition monitoring.