Possibilities to reduce rice straw-induced global warming potential of a sandy paddy soil by combining hydrological manipulations and urea-N fertilizations

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.05.003

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Volume 39, Issue 10, October 2007, Pages 2675-2681

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.05.003 Get rights and content

Abstract

Global warming potential (GWP) of sandy paddy soils may be reduced by trade-offs between N₂O, CH₄ and CO₂ emissions. Laboratory experiments using either rice straw (1% or 0.5%) or together with urea-N (25 or 50 mg N kg⁻¹ soil) at various levels of soil water were carried out for 30 days each, to test this assumption. Waterlogging combined with urea-N increased total N₂O emissions, with greater release upon rewaterlogging (7.4 mg N kg⁻¹ soil) than experienced by removing waterlogging only. Rice straw±urea-N either emitted small amounts of N₂O or resulted in negative values at all water levels, including saturated and aerobic. Total CH₄ fluxes declined with the decreased water levels and amount of rice straw (<193 mg C kg⁻¹ soil), and also for CO₂ with the latter (<1340 mg C kg⁻¹ soil), and rewaterlogging had little influence on both. N₂O under rewaterlogged and waterlogged±urea-N, CH₄ under waterlogged with rice straw, and CO₂ for the remainder were the major contributors to GWP. Results show that waterlogging following aerobic decomposition of rice straw (1%) with urea-N, applied either at the beginning or at the end of the aerobic conditions, could decrease GWP by 56–64% and 32–42% over the sole addition of rice straw (1% and 0.5%) under waterlogged and saturated conditions, respectively.

Introduction

Agricultural soils contribute large volumes of greenhouse gases (GHGs; N₂O, CH₄ and CO₂), which are increasing global warming potential (GWP). Paddy soils of the world are thought to contribute a large share, particularly of CH₄, either through application of organic residues and/or root respiration during rice growth. Organic material-induced CH₄ emission can be detected 20–40 days after rice transplanting (Wassmann et al., 1996), indicating potential for reducing emissions from both irrigated and lowland rice fields by adopting suitable management. Suggested options, i.e., mid-season/multiple/intermittent drainage (Yagi et al., 1997; Zou et al., 2005) generally implemented at tillering stage onward are unlikely to be effective in reducing organic matter-induced CH₄ emissions, particularly from lowland rice fields.

Addition of organic residues increases CH₄ emission and CO₂ evolution through enhancing heterotrophic activities, the degree depending on soil water regime (Yagi and Minami, 1990; Denier van der Gon and Neue, 1995; Wassmann et al., 1996). Application of nitrogenous fertilizers releases large amounts of N₂O; C availability regulates both nitrification and denitrification to produce and release N₂O and/or N₂ under favorable soil and environmental conditions (Tsuruta et al., 1997; Khalil et al., 2002; Zou et al., 2005; Jiao et al., 2006). Recently, minor responses to added rice straw (in and out of the growing season) on CH₄ emission, compared to no straw, have been reported (Minamikawa and Sakai, 2006). It is not known how the emission of other gases, and their contribution to GWP, varies for specific soil and management systems. The processes responsible for the production and release of the gases interact with C and N supply. Stabilization of added organic materials with N (Moran et al., 2005) seems to markedly reduce their gas release, by increasing microbial degradation and the production of CO₂. It may also be that coupled C and N application alleviates N limitation caused by immobilization of added/mineralized N during early rice growth. The strategic management of available and cheap resources (rice straw and urea), to manipulate C and N sources in crop production, is critical to minimize GHG release. Several management options were tested in laboratory experiments using a sandy paddy soil. We investigated the major GHGs contributing to, and their trade-offs, in straw-induced GWP, in order to find the most appropriate management.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Composite samples of a paddy soil (0–15 cm depth) were collected from a farmer's field in Kujuukuri, Chiba prefecture, Japan, and sieved with a 5 mm mesh. The sandy soil (sand 83.6%, silt 10.4% and clay 6.0%; coarse-textured gley) had the following properties: ${pH}_{H_{2} O}$ 6.3, total C content 7.5 g C kg⁻¹ soil, total N 0.8 g N kg⁻¹ soil, CEC 6.1 cmol_c kg⁻¹ soil and available N as NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻, corresponding to 52.7 and 11.4 mg N kg⁻¹ soil.

Three separate experiments were carried out under different soil water

Results and discussion

Irrespective of treatments, the maximum peaks for N₂O fluxes during the 30-day incubation (data not shown) were of similar trends to the total. The U_f and unfertilized control showed higher N₂O release under WL (1.94 and 0.59 mg N kg⁻¹ soil, respectively, Table 2) than under saturated (SAT) and aerobic (AR) conditions. The findings are in agreement with Nishimura et al. (2004), and can be attributed to the presence of nitrate either inherent or through nitrification, and the subsequent

Acknowledgments

This research work was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Ministry of the Environment, Japan under GHG-SSCP project, Global Environment Research Funds (B-S-2-3a). The authors are grateful to Dr. H. Tsuruta and Dr. K. Yagi for their valuable suggestions on this work.

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Short communicationPossibilities to reduce rice straw-induced global warming potential of a sandy paddy soil by combining hydrological manipulations and urea-N fertilizations

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Results and discussion

Acknowledgments

Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment

Soil Biology & Biochemistry

Soil Biology & Biochemistry

Soil Biology & Biochemistry

Soil Biology & Biochemistry

Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment

Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice paddy fields as affected by nitrogen fertilizers and water management

Plant and Soil

Influence of organic matter incorporation on the methane emission from a wetland rice field

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

Microbial biomass and activity under oxic and anoxic conditions as affected by nitrate additions

Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

Evaluation of methane oxidation in plant-soil system

Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

Factors influencing methane emission from peat soils: Comparison of tropical and temperate wetlands

Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

Water management influencing methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice field in relation to soil redox and microbial community

Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis

Short communication
Possibilities to reduce rice straw-induced global warming potential of a sandy paddy soil by combining hydrological manipulations and urea-N fertilizations