Abstract
Human demand for food has been increasing as population grows around the world. Meanwhile, global temperature has been rising with the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although soil mulching (SM) is an effective method to increase crop yield because it could conserve soil moisture and temperature, it is also an important factor affecting GHG productions and emissions. At present, research results in terms of the impact of SM on agricultural GHG emissions are still inconsistent. Therefore, a meta-analysis was used to quantitatively analyze the impact of SM on crop yield and GHG emissions in China. Overall, SM significantly enhanced not only crop yield, but also GHG emissions. Compared with no soil mulching (NSM), SM improved crop yield by 21.84%, while increased global warming potential (GWP) by 11.38%. To minimize the negative impact of SM on GHG, for maize and wheat in arid, semi-arid and semi-humid zones, it is recommended to use flat full mulching with grave or straw plus drip irrigation under neutral or weakly alkaline soil with bulk density <1.3g cm-3. For rice in humid regions, it is advisable to apply SM to minimize GHG emissions by significantly decreasing CH4 emissions.
Highlights
Food security and global warming are two critical issues in the 21st century [1]
The database was obtained from 45 articles regarding the impact of soil mulching (SM) on greenhouse gas (GHG) in China
Overall, compared to no soil mulching (NSM), SM significantly improved crop yield by 21.84%
Summary
Food security and global warming are two critical issues in the 21st century [1]. According to Food Security and Nutrition in the World by Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations in 2020, nearly 690 million people around the world have been starving in 2019, accounting for 8.9 percent of the global population. Human demand for food has been increasing with the increase of global population. According to the assessment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), agriculture is the second largest source of GHG emissions, accounting for about 13.5% of global anthropogenic emissions [2]. Farming and field management indirectly affect productions and emissions of GHG by changing the soil environment. It is essential to find ways to effectively reduce GHG emissions while improving crop productivity
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