abstract: Land use and cultural practices play an important role in global green-house gas emission and uptake. Our objective is to review the effects of land use and cultural practices on carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and nitric oxide (NO) emission and uptake with emphasis on recent develop-ments. The effects of land use and tillage on CO2 emission are mostly due to changes in soil temperature affecting soil and root respiration. Soil-plant systems can either be a sink or a source for atmospheric CO2 or at equilibrium, depending on the magnitude of captu-ring soil CO2 through photosynthesis and dormant season flux. During and immediately after tillage CO2 emission is enhanced by physical CO2 release from soil due to reduced resistance to gas transfer. This effect increases with increasing tillage depth and degree of soil disturbance. N2O emission is in general higher from grasslands than other land uses (crop field, forestland, woodland) and from not tilled than tilled soil. This emis-sion increases with increasing nitrogen fertilization, availability of C, contribution of larger aggregates and decreasing gas diffusivity and air-filled porosity. Large contributors of CH4 to the atmosphere are cultivated (rice fields) and natural wetlands. The CH4 emission from the rice fields can be reduced by drainage of water during growing season and by appropriate selection of rice cultivars and CH4 emission from the wetlands is highly stimulated by increasing organic matter. In general, aerated upland soils act as sinks for atmospheric CH4 with higher absorption potential in forests than grasslands and cultivated fields. Nitric oxide emissions increase with increasing N-fertilization, decreasing soil water content and soil temperature. Spatial and temporal variability of the greenhouse gas fluxes in relation to soil management practices and interrelations between fluxes of particular gases are discussed. The potential of some innovative techniques for measuring soil greenhouse gas concentration and emission at different scales is indicated. Large uncertainty in inventory of greenhouse gas fluxes implies the need for further measurements and modeling the fluxes under different management practices.