Methane emission from paddy fields in Taiwan

Abstract

In order to investigate the effect of environmental conditions on CH4 emission from paddy fields in Taiwan, four locations, two cropping seasons and two irrigation systems were studied. CH4 emission was high at the active tillering and the booting stages in the first cropping season, whereas it was low at the transplanting and the ripening stages with an intermittent irrigation system. CH4 emission was high at the transplanting stage in the second cropping season, and decreased gradually during rice cultivation. Daily temperature and light intensity increased gradually during rice growth in the first cropping season (February–June), while it was reversed in the second cropping season (August–December). The seasonal CH4 emission from paddy fields ranged from 1.73 to 11.70 g m–2, and from 10.54 to 39.50 g m–2 in the first and second cropping seasons, respectively. The seasonal CH4 emission in the second cropping season was higher than that in the first cropping season in all test fields. The seasonal CH4 emission was 32.65 mg m–2 in the first cropping season of the National Taiwan University paddy field with continuous flooding, and it was 28.85 mg m–2 in the second cropping season. The annual CH4 emission ranged from 12.3 to 49.3 g m–2 with an intermittent irrigation system, and the value was 61.5 g m–2 with a continuous flooding treatment. The annual CH4 emission from paddy fields was estimated to be 0.034 Tg in 1997 from 364,212 ha of paddy fields with an intermittent irrigation system, which was less than the 0.241 Tg calculated by the IPCC method with a continuous flooding treatment