Md. Mozammel Haque

C and N accumulations in soil aggregates determine nitrous oxide emissions from cover crop treated rice paddy soils during fallow season.

Combination of leguminous and non-leguminous plant residues are preferably applied in rice paddy soils to increase the rate of organic matter mineralization and to improve plant growth. However, organic matter addition facilitates methane (CH4) emission from rice paddy soil. Mineralization of organic nitrogen (N) increases NO3-N concentrations in soil, which are precursors for the formation of nitrous oxide (N2O). However, N2O is a minor greenhouse gas emitted from submerged rice field and hence is not often considered during calculation of total global warming potential (GWP) during rice cultivation. The hypothesis of this study was that fluxes of N2O emissions might be changed after removal of flooded water from rice field and the effect of cover crops on N2O emissions in the fallow season might be interesting. However, the effects of N-rich plant residues on N2O emission rates in the fallow season and its effect on annual GWP were not studied before. In this experiment, combination of barley (non-leguminous) and hairy vetch (leguminous) biomasses were applied at 9 Mg ha(-1) and 27 Mg ha(-1) rates in rice paddy soil. Cover crop application significantly increased CH4 emission flux while decreased N2O emissions during rice cultivation. The lowest N2O emission was observed in 27 Mg ha(-1) cover crop treated plots. Cover crop applications increased N contents in soil aggregates especially in smaller aggregates (<250 μm), and that proportionately increased the N2O emission potentials of these soil aggregates. Fluxes of N2O emissions in the fallow season were influenced by the N2O emission potentials of soil aggregates and followed opposite trends as those observed during rice cultivation. Therefore, it could be concluded that the doses of cover crop applications for rice cultivation should not be optimized considering only CH4, but N2O should also be considered especially for fallow season to calculate total GWP.

Effective Suppression of Methane Emission by 2-Bromoethanesulfonate during Rice Cultivation

2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES) is a structural analogue of coenzyme M (Co-M) and potent inhibitor of methanogenesis. Several studies confirmed, BES can inhibit CH4 prodcution in rice soil, but the suppressing effectiveness of BES application on CH4 emission under rice cultivation has not been studied. In this pot experiment, different levels of BES (0, 20, 40 and 80 mg kg-1) were applied to study its effect on CH4 emission and plant growth during rice cultivation. Application of BES effectively suppressed CH4 emission when compared with control soil during rice cultivation. The CH4 emission rates were significantly (P<0.001) decreased by BES application possibly due to significant (P<0.001) reduction of methnaogenic biomarkers like Co-M concentration and mcrA gene copy number (i.e. methanogenic abunadance). BES significantly (P<0.001) reduced methanogen activity, while it did not affect soil dehydrogenase activity during rice cultivation. A rice plant growth and yield parameters were not affected by BES application. The maximum CH4 reduction (49% reduction over control) was found at 80 mg kg-1 BES application during rice cultivation. It is, therefore, concluded that BES could be a suitable soil amendment for reducing CH4 emission without affecting rice plant growth and productivity during rice cultivation.