Differences in the Spatial Variability Among CO2, CH 4, and N 2O Gas Fluxes from an Urban Forest Soil in Japan.

The spatial variability of carbon dioxide (CO(2)), methane (CH(4)), and nitrous oxide (N(2)O) fluxes from forest soil with high nitrogen (N) deposition was investigated at a rolling hill region in Japan. Gas fluxes were measured on July 25th and December 5th, 2008 at 100 points within a 100 × 100 m grid. Slope direction and position influenced soil characteristics and site-specific emissions were found. The CO(2) flux showed no topological difference in July, but was significantly lower in December for north-slope with coniferous trees. Spatial dependency of CH(4) fluxes was stronger than that of CO(2) or N(2)O and showed a significantly higher uptake in hill top, and emissions in the valley indicating strong influence of water status. N(2)O fluxes showed no spatial dependency and exhibited high hot spots at different topology in July and December. The high N deposition led to high N(2)O fluxes and emphasized the spatial variability.

Oxidation of flooded paddy soil through irrigation with water containing bulk oxygen nanobubbles.

Nanobubbles (NBs) with a diameter of <1 µm have unique properties, including a long lifetime in water. Our previous study showed that irrigation with water containing bulk oxygen NBs (oxygen NB water) reduced seasonal methane (CH4) emissions from flooded rice cultivation by 21%. We therefore hypothesize that the CH4 emission reduction attributed to soil oxidation. To test this hypothesis, we carried out three sequential soil-column experiments under flooded and rice-unplanted conditions. They shared the same experimental settings, except for the lengths of soil storage before experiment (2-3 years) and of aerobic soil preincubation (7-13 days). The columns were manually irrigated with aerated tap water (control) or oxygen NB water. A tubing pump was operated to constantly drain leaching water from the column bottom. During the 57-day experimental periods, we regularly measured dissolved greenhouse gases in the drainage and leached heavy metals. The greater amount of leached manganese than of leached iron indicates that the reductive soil conditions were relatively weak in the three experiments. Oxygen NB water reduced the total dissolved CH4 emissions by 20-28% compared to control water. However, a significant difference (p < 0.05) was found only when the CH4 emission was greatest in the experiment with the shortest length of soil storage due to a high availability of soil labile carbon. Soil oxygen profiling using a microelectrode revealed that oxygen depletion at shallow depths (4-15 mm from the soil surface) was ameliorated by oxygen NB water on day 35 of experiment when the CH4 emission was smaller due to a limited soil labile carbon. The results confirm that irrigation with oxygen NB water reduces CH4 production in a flooded paddy soil through the oxidation of shallow soil.

Prediction of future methane emission from irrigated rice paddies in central Thailand under different water management practices.

There is concern about positive feedbacks between climate change and methane (CH4) emission from rice paddies. However, appropriate water management may mitigate the problem. We tested this hypothesis at six field sites in central Thailand, where the irrigated area is rapidly increasing. We used DNDC-Rice, a process-based biogeochemistry model adjusted based on rice growth data at each site to simulate CH4 emission from a rice-rice double cropping system from 2001 to 2060. Future climate change scenarios consisting of four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) and seven global climate models were generated by statistical downscaling. We then simulated CH4 emission in three water management practices: continuous flooding (CF), single aeration (SA), and multiple aeration (MA). The adjusted model reproduced the observed rice yield and CH4 emission well at each site. The simulated CH4 emissions in CF from 2051 to 2060 were 5.3 to 7.8%, 9.6 to 16.0%, 7.3 to 18.0%, and 13.6 to 19.0% higher than those from 2001 to 2010 in RCPs 2.6, 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5, respectively, at the six sites. Regionally, SA and MA mitigated CH4 emission by 21.9 to 22.9% and 53.5 to 55.2%, respectively, relative to CF among the four RCPs. These mitigation potentials by SA and MA were comparable to those from 2001 to 2010. Our results indicate that climate change in the next several decades will not attenuate the quantitative effect of water management practices on mitigating CH4 emission from irrigated rice paddies in central Thailand.