Effect of Biochar Amendment on Methane Emissions from Paddy Field under Water-Saving Irrigation

Yanan Xiao, Shihong Yang, Junzeng Xu, Jie Ding, Xiao Sun and Zewei Jiang
Additional contact information
Yanan Xiao: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Shihong Yang: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Junzeng Xu: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Jie Ding: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Xiao Sun: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Zewei Jiang: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: Biochar has been proposed as a new countermeasure to mitigate climate change because of its potential in inhibiting greenhouse gas emissions from farmlands. A field experiment was conducted in Taihu Lake region in China to assess the effects of rice-straw biochar amendment on methane (CH 4 ) emissions from paddy fields under water-saving irrigation using three treatments, namely, control with no amendment (C0), 20 t ha −1 (C20), and 40 t ha −1 rice-straw biochar amendments (C40). Results showed that biochar application significantly decreased CH 4 emissions by 29.7% and 15.6% at C20 and C40 biochar addition level, respectively. C20 significantly increased soil dissolved organic carbon, total nitrogen, and NH 4 + -N by 79.5, 24.5, and 47.7%, respectively, and decreased NO 3 − -N by 30.4% compared with C0. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed in soil pH and soil organic carbon in all treatments. C20 and C40 significantly increased and decreased soil oxidation-reduction potential, respectively. Compared with C0, rice yield and irrigation water productivity significantly increased by 24.0% and 33.4% and 36.3% and 42.5% for C20 and C40, respectively. Thus, rice-straw biochar amendment and water-saving irrigation technology can inhibit CH 4 emissions while increasing rice yield and irrigation water productivity. The effects of increasing rice yield and irrigation water productivity were more remarkable for C40, but C20 was more effective in mitigating CH 4 emission.

Keywords: biochar; water-saving irrigation; methane emission; rice yield (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1371/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1371/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1371-:d:143670

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().