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Mechanical insights into the effect of fluctuation in soil moisture on nitrous oxide emissions from paddy soil

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Abstract

Paddy fields are subjected to fluctuating water regimes as a result of the alternate drying and wetting water management, which often incurs a sensitive change in N2O emissions from paddy soils. However, how the soil moisture regulates the emission of N2O from paddy soil remains uncertain. In this study, three incubation experiments were designed to study the effects of constant and fluctuating soil moisture on N2O emission and the sources of N2O emission from paddy soil. Results showed that the N2O emission from paddy soil at 100 % WHC (water-holding capacity) was higher than that at 40, 65, 80, 120, and 160 % WHC, indicating that 100 % WHC was the optimum soil moisture content for N2O emission under the incubation experiment. Small peak of N2O flux appeared when the soil moisture content from 250 % WHC decreased near to 100 % WHC, lower than that triggered by nitrogen (N) fertilization, which was mainly owing to the low NH4 + concentration at this period. Nitrification dominated the emissions of N2O from paddy soil at 250 % WHC (54.96 %), higher than that of nitrification-coupled denitrification (6.74 %) and denitrification (38.3 %). The contribution of denitrification to N2O emissions (44.10 %) was equivalent to that of nitrification (44.45 %) in soil at 100 % WHC, which was higher than that of 250 % WHC treatment. In conclusion, the finding suggested that the peak of N2O in paddy soils during midseason aeration could be attributed to the occurrence of optimum soil moisture under sufficient N availability, favorable for the production and accumulation of N2O.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41425005) and the “Strategic Priority Research Program–Climate Change: Carbon Budget and Relevant Issues” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA05020200). We gratefully acknowledge the technical assistance provided by the Changshu Agroecological Experimental Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Lan Ma, Yi Cheng, Jinyang Wang & Xiaoyuan Yan

  2. Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    Lan Ma

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  1. Lan Ma
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Correspondence to Xiaoyuan Yan.

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Ma, L., Cheng, Y., Wang, J. et al. Mechanical insights into the effect of fluctuation in soil moisture on nitrous oxide emissions from paddy soil. Paddy Water Environ 15, 359–369 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-016-0554-y

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