Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Extended methane mitigation capacity of a mid-season drainage beyond the rice growing season: a case in Spain

  • Published:
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Rice cultivation is a major source of methane (CH4) emissions. Intermittent irrigation systems in rice cultivation, such as the mid-season drainage (MSD), are effective strategies to mitigate CH4 emissions during the growing season, though the reduction rates are variable and dependent on the crop context. Aeration periods induce alteration of soil CH4 dynamics that can be prolonged after flooding recovery. However, whether these changes persist beyond the growing season remains underexplored. A field experiment was conducted in Spain to study the effect of MSD implemented during the rice growing season on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in relation to the standard permanently flooded water management (PFL). Specifically, the study aimed at (1) assessing the CH4 mitigation capacity of MSD in the studied area and (2) testing the hypothesis that the mitigating effect of MSD can be extended into the following winter flooded fallow season. Year-round GHG sampling was conducted, seasonal and annual cumulative emissions of CH4 and N2O as well as the global warming potential were calculated, and grain yield was measured. MSD reduced growing season CH4 emissions by ca. 80% without yield penalties. During the flooded fallow season, MSD reduced CH4 emissions by ca. 60%, despite both fields being permanently flooded. The novelty of our observations lies in the amplified mitigation capacity of MSD by extending the CH4 mitigation effect to the following flooded winter fallow season. This finding becomes especially relevant in rice systems with flooded winter fallow season given the large contribution of this season to the annual CH4 emissions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  • Brye, K. R., Nalley, L. L., Tack, J. B., Dixon, B. L., Barkley, A. P., Rogers, C. W., Smartt, A. D., Norman, R. J., & Jagadish, K. S. V. (2016). Factors affecting methane emissions from rice production in the Lower Mississippi river valley, USA. Geoderma Regional, 7, 223–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrijo, D. R., Lundy, M. E., & Linquist, B. A. (2017). Rice yields and water use under alternate wetting and drying irrigation: A meta-analysis. Field Crops Research, 203, 173–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, R. (2020). Methane production in soil environments—Anaerobic biogeochemistry and microbial life between flooding and desiccation. Microorganisms, 8, 881.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, R., Ji, Y., Noll, M., Klose, M., Claus, P., & Enrich-Prast, A. (2014). Response of the methanogenic microbial communities in Amazonian oxbow lake sediments to desiccation stress. Environmental Microbiology, 16, 1682–1694.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Diel, J., Vogel, H.-J., & Schlüter, S. (2019). Impact of wetting and drying cycles on soil structure dynamics. Geoderma, 345, 63–71.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, G. J., Scow, K. M., & Hill, J. E. (2000). Fallow season straw and water management effects on methane emissions in California rice. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 14, 767–776.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Javadinejad, S., Eslamian, S., & Ostad-Ali-Askari, K. (2021). The analysis of the most important climatic parameters affecting performance of crop variability in a changing climate. International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 11, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, Y., Scavino, A. F., Klose, M., Claus, P., & Conrad, R. (2015). Functional and structural responses of methanogenic microbial communities in Uruguayan soils to intermittent drainage. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 89, 238–247.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kritee, K., Nair, D., Zavala-Araiza, D., Proville, J., Rudek, J., Adhya, T. K., Loecke, T., Esteves, T., Balireddygari, S., Dava, O., Ram, K., & S. R., A., Madasamy, M., Dokka, R.V., Anandaraj, D., Athiyaman, D., Reddy, M., Ahuja, R., Hamburg, S.P.,. (2018). High nitrous oxide fluxes from rice indicate the need to manage water for both long- and short-term climate impacts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115, 9720–9725.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Krüger, M., Frenzel, P., Kemnitz, D., & Conrad, R. (2005). Activity, structure and dynamics of the methanogenic archaeal community in a flooded Italian rice field. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 51, 323–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaHue, G. T., Chaney, R. L., Adviento-Borbe, M. A., & Linquist, B. A. (2016). Alternate wetting and drying in high yielding direct-seeded rice systems accomplishes multiple environmental and agronomic objectives. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 229, 30–39.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Linquist, B. A., Anders, M. M., Adviento-Borbe, M. A., Chaney, R. L., Nalley, L. L., da Rosa, E. F., & van Kessel, C. (2015). Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and grain arsenic levels in rice systems. Global Change Biology, 21, 407–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, X., Zhou, T., Liu, Y., Zhang, X., Li, L., & Pan, G. (2019). Effect of mid-season drainage on CH4 and N2O emission and grain yield in rice ecosystem: A meta-analysis. Agricultural Water Management, 213, 1028–1035.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martínez-Eixarch, M., Alcaraz, C., Guàrdia, M., Català-Forner, M., Bertomeu, A., Monaco, S., Cochrane, N., Oliver, V., Teh, Y.A., Courtois, B.(2021a). Multiple environmental benefits of alternate wetting and drying irrigation system with limited yield impact on European rice cultivation: The Ebre Delta case. Agricultural Water Management.

  • Martínez-Eixarch, M., Alcaraz, C., Viñas, M., Noguerol, J., Aranda, X., Prenafeta-Boldú, F.-X., Català-Forner, M., Fennessy, M.S., Ibáñez, C. (2021b). The main drivers of methane emissions differ in the growing and flooded fallow seasons in Mediterranean rice fields. Plant and Soil, 1–17.

  • Martínez-Eixarch, M., Alcaraz, C., Viñas, M., Noguerol, J., Aranda, X., Prenafeta-Boldú, F., la Vega Saldaña-De, J., Català, M., & Ibáñez, C. (2018). Neglecting the fallow season can significantly underestimate annual methane emissions in Mediterranean rice fields. PLoS ONE, 13, e0198081–e0198081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norton, G. J., Shafaei, M., Travis, A. J., Deacon, C. M., Danku, J., Pond, D., Cochrane, N., Lockhart, K., Salt, D., & Zhang, H. (2017). Impact of alternate wetting and drying on rice physiology, grain production, and grain quality. Field Crops Research, 205, 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reim, A., Hernández, M., Klose, M., Chidthaisong, A., Yuttitham, M., & Conrad, R. (2017). Response of methanogenic microbial communities to desiccation stress in flooded and rain-fed paddy soil from Thailand. Frontiers in Microbiology, 8, 785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saunois, M., Jackson, R. B., Bousquet, P., Poulter, B., & Canadell, J. G. (2016). The growing role of methane in anthropogenic climate change. Environmental Research Letters, 11, 120207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seiler, W., Holzapfel-Pschorn, A., Conrad, R., & Scharffe, D. (1983). Methane emission from rice paddies. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry, 1, 241–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P., Bustamante, M., Ahammad, H., Clark, H., Dong, H., Elsiddig, E. A., Haberl, H., Harper, R., House, J., Jafari, M., Masera, O., Mbow, C., Ravindranath, N. H., Rice, C. W., Robledo Abad, C., Romanovskaya, A., Sperling, F., & Tubiello, F. (2014). Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., Pichs-Madruga, R., Sokona, Y., Farahani, E., Kadner, S., Seyboth, K., Adler, A., Baum, I., Brunner, S., Eickemeier, P., Kriemann, B., Savolainen, J., Schlömer, S., von Stechow, C., Zwickel T., & Minx J. C. (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. The technical support of the rice growing company Instituto Hispánico del Arroz S.A. (HISPARROZ) is also acknowledged.

Funding

This work has been supported and funded by Mars Food, Herba Ricemills (Ebro Foods) and Danone Specialized Nutrition in the frame of the ORYZONTE project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRTA - Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology, Marine and Continental Waters Program, Sant Carles de La Ràpita, 43540, Catalonia, Spain

    Maite Martínez-Eixarch & Carles Alcaraz

  2. Gabinete de Iniciativas Europeas, planta 4, módulo 2, S.A. C/Arquitectura 5, 41015, Seville, Spain

    Manuel Beltrán-Miralles

  3. Optimización de Riegos Y Agronomía, S.L.U. C, Arquitectura 5, planta 4, módulo 2, 41015, Seville, Spain

    Sébastien Guéry

Authors
  1. Maite Martínez-Eixarch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Manuel Beltrán-Miralles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sébastien Guéry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Carles Alcaraz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maite Martínez-Eixarch.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Martínez-Eixarch, M., Beltrán-Miralles, M., Guéry, S. et al. Extended methane mitigation capacity of a mid-season drainage beyond the rice growing season: a case in Spain. Environ Monit Assess 194, 648 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10334-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10334-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation