Abstract
To understand why atmospheric methane is increasing worldwide, accurate estimates are needed of the global input from rice fields. We report greenhouse and laboratory studies over three growing seasons to isolate and control factors that might affect methane emission from rice paddies, including soil texture, added exogenous organic matter (OM), nitrogen and sulfate ion, and water management. Without added OM, methane production was relatively low, increasing during the growing season, and continuing after harvest, provided the soil remained water‐logged. If ground rice straw was added to the soil prior to planting, methane production began shortly after flooding, with an initial burst of the gas after 3 to 5 weeks, and then a gradual increase to a second peak later in the season (and after harvest), with rates considerably higher than in treatments without added OM.
Highlights
We report greenhouse and laboratory studies over three growing seasons to isolate and control factors that might affect methane emission from rice paddies, including soil texture, added exogenous organic matter (OM), nitrogen and sulfate ion, and water management
Methane production and emission began shortly after flooding where organic matter was added to the soil, it did not show the sharp rise we had observed in earlier field studies
When the added organic matter
Summary
Is increasing worldwide, accurate estimates are needed of the global input from rice fields. A number of heterotrophic species produce methane in the degradation of various organic compounds, but these are not all members of the family methanobacteriaceae or others of the methanogenic The latter are a diverse group of organisms capable of the autotrophic oxidation of hydrogen with carbon dioxide as electron acceptor, yielding methane, and using the energy of the reaction for the production of cell material [Zeikus, 1977]. Because the energy yield in the individual reactions is low compared with that when oxygen is the electron acceptor, the yield of methane is high for a given quantity of cell material produced From these considerations, greenhouse studies were designed to examine the effects of soil texture (as it influenced water and oxygen movement), the addition of organic matter, the presence or absence of sulfate ion as an alternate electron acceptor, and other variables. The time course of methane emission was followed through the growing season and after harvest
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