BG Biogeosciences BG Biogeosciences 1726-4189 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/bg-8-3809-2011 Seasonal trends and environmental controls of methane emissions in a rice paddy field in Northern Italy Meijide A. 1 Manca G. 2 Goded I. 1 Magliulo V. 3 di Tommasi P. 3 Seufert G. 1 Cescatti A. 1 European Commission – DG Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Climate Change and Air Quality Unit. Via Enrico Fermi 2749 I21027 Ispra (VA) Italy National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research, Division of Rende, 87036-Rende, Italy CNR-ISAFoM, Via Patacca, 80056 Ercolano, (Napoli), Italy 21 12 2011 8 12 3809 3821 Copyright: © 2011 A. Meijide et al. 2011 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/8/3809/2011/bg-8-3809-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/8/3809/2011/bg-8-3809-2011.pdf

Rice paddy fields are one of the greatest anthropogenic sources of methane (CH<sub>4</sub>), the third most important greenhouse gas after water vapour and carbon dioxide. In agricultural fields, CH<sub>4</sub> is usually measured with the closed chamber technique, resulting in discontinuous series of measurements performed over a limited area, that generally do not provide sufficient information on the short-term variation of the fluxes. On the contrary, aerodynamic techniques have been rarely applied for the measurement of CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes in rice paddy fields. The eddy covariance (EC) technique provides integrated continuous measurements over a large area and may increase our understanding of the underlying processes and diurnal and seasonal pattern of CH<sub>4</sub> emissions in this ecosystem. <br><br> For this purpose a Fast Methane Analyzer (Los Gatos Research Ltd.) was installed in a rice paddy field in the Po Valley (Northern Italy). Methane fluxes were measured during the rice growing season with both EC and manually operated closed chambers. Methane fluxes were strongly influenced by the height of the water table, with emissions peaking when it was above 10–12 cm. Soil temperature and the developmental stage of rice plants were also responsible of the seasonal variation on the fluxes. The measured EC fluxes showed a diurnal cycle in the emissions, which was more relevant during the vegetative period, and with CH<sub>4</sub> emissions being higher in the late evening, possibly associated with higher water temperature. The comparison between the two measurement techniques shows that greater fluxes are measured with the chambers, especially when higher fluxes are being produced, resulting in 30 % higher seasonal estimations with the chambers than with the EC (41.1 and 31.7 g CH<sub>4</sub> m<sup>−2</sup> measured with chambers and EC respectively) and even greater differences are found if shorter periods with high chamber sampling frequency are compared. The differences may be a result of the combined effect of overestimation with the chambers and of the possible underestimation by the EC technique.

 References Altman, D. G. and Bland, J. M.: Measurement in Medicine: the Analysis of Method Comparison Studies, The Statistician, 32, 307–317, 1983. Aubinet, M., Grelle, A., Ibrom, A., Rannik, U., Moncrieff, J., Foken, T., Kowalski, A. S., Martin, P. H., Berbigier, P., Bernhofer, C., Clement, R., Elbers, J., Granier, A., Grãnwald, T., Morgenstern, K., Pilegaard, K., Rebmann, C., Snijders, W., Valentini, R., and Vesala, T.: Estimates of the Annual Net Carbon and Water Exchange of Forests: The EUROFLUX Methodology, Adv. Ecol. Res., 30, 113–175, 2000. Baldocchi, D. D., Hicks, B. B., and Meyers, T. P.: Measuring biosphere-atmosphere exchanges of biologically related gases with micrometeorological methods, Ecology, 69, 1331–1340, 1988. Baldocchi, D., Valentini, R., Running, S., Oechel, W., and Dahlman, R.: Strategies for measuring and modelling carbon dioxide and water vapour fluxes over terrestrial ecosystems, Global Change Biol., 2, 159–168, 1996. Baldocchi, D., Detto, M., Sonnentag, O., Verfaillie, J., Teh, Y. A., Silver, W., and Kelly, N. M.: The challenges of measuring methane fluxes and concentrations over a peatland pasture, Agric. For. Meteorol., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.04.013, in press., 2011. Bekku, Y., Koizumi, H., Nakadai, T., and Iwaki, H.: Measurement of soil respiration using closed chamber method: An IRGA technique, Ecol. Res., 10, 369–373, 1995. Brix, H., Sorrell, B. K., and Orr, P. T.: Internal pressurization and convective gas flow in some emergent freshwater macrophytes, Limnol. Oceanogr., 37, 1420–1433, 1992. Bubier, J. L. and Moore, T. R.: An ecological perspective on methane emissions from northern wetlands, Trends Ecol. Evol., 9, 460–464, 1994. Butterbach-Bahl, K., Papen, H., and Rennenberg, H.: Impact of gas transport through rice cultivars on methane emission from rice paddy fields, Plant Cell Environ., 20, 1175–1183, 1997. Christensen, T. R., Ekberg, A., Strom, L., Mastepanov, M., Panikov, N., Mats, O., Svensson, B. H., Nykanen, H., Martikainen, P. J., and Oskarsson, H.: Factors controlling large scale variations in methane emissions from wetlands, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 67–61, 2003. Christiansen, J., Korhonen, J., Juszczak, R., Giebels, M., and Pihlatie, M.: Assessing the effects of chamber placement, manual sampling and headspace mixing on CH4 fluxes in a laboratory experiment, Plant Soil, 343, 171–185, 2011. Cicerone, R. J. and Shetter, J. D.: Sources of atmospheric methane: Measurements in rice paddies and a discussion, J. Geophy. Res., 86, 7203–7209, 1981. Cole, V., Cerri, C., Minami, K., Mosier, A., Rosenberg, N., and Sanerack, D.: Agricultural options for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, in: Climate Change, edited by: Houghton, R. A. J. T., Meria Filho, L. G., Callander, B. A., Harris, N., Kettenber, A., and Maskell, K., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 745–771, 1995. Conrad, R. and Rothfuss, F.: Methane oxidation in the soil surface layer of a flooded rice field and the effect of ammonium, Biol. Fertility Soils, 12, 28–32, 1991. Dacey, J. W. H.: Pressurized ventilation in the yellow waterlily, Ecology, 62, 1137–1147, 1981. Damm, A., Elber, J., Erler, A., Giol, G., Hamdi, K., Hutjes, R., Kosvancova, M., Meroni, M., Miglietta, F., Moersch, A., Moreno, J., Schickling, A., Sonnenschein, R., Udelhoven, T., van der Linden, S., Hostert, P., and Rascher, U.: Remote sensing of sun-induced fluorescence to improve modeling of diurnal courses of gross primary production (GPP), Global Change Biol., 16, 171–186, 2010. Denmead, O. T.: Approaches to measuring fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide between landscapes and the atmosphere, Plant. Soil., 309, 5–24, 2008. Detto, M., Verfaillie, J., Anderson, F., Xu, L., and Baldocchi, D.: Comparing laser-based open- and closed-path gas analyzers to measure methane fluxes using the eddy covariance method, Agric. For. Meteorol., 151, 1312–1324, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.05.014, 2011. Dlugokencky, E. J., Steele, L. P., Lang, P. M., and Masarie, K. A.: The growth rate and distribution of atmospheric methane, J. Geophy. Res., 99, 17021–17043, 1994. Etheridge, D. M., Steele, L. P., Francey, R. J., and Langenfelds, R. L.: Atmospheric methane between 1000 A.D. and present: Evidence of anthropogenic emissions and climatic variability, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 103, 15979–15993, 1998. Falge, E., Baldocchi, D., Olson, R., Anthoni, P., Aubinet, M., Bernhofer, C., Burba, G., Ceulemans, R., Clement, R., Dolman, H., Granier, A., Gross, P., Grãnwald, T., Hollinger, D., Jensen, N. O., Katul, G., Keronen, P., Kowalski, A., Ta Lai, C., Law, B. E., Meyers, T., Moncrieff, J., Moors, E., William Munger, J., Pilegaard, K., Rannik, Ã., Rebmann, C., Suyker, A., Tenhunen, J., Tu, K., Verma, S., Vesala, T., Wilson, K., and Wofsy, S.: Short communication: Gap filling strategies for long term energy flux data sets, Agric. For. Meteorol., 107, 71–77, 2001. FAO: World Reference Base for Soil Resources, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, Rome, 1998. FAO: FAO Rice information, in, edited by: The Secretariat of the International Rice Commission – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2002. Ferrero, A.: Rice scenario in the European Union, Cahiers Agricultures, 16, 272–277, https://doi.org/10.1684/agr.2007.0108, 2007. Ferretti, D. F., Miller, J. B., White, J. W. C., Etheridge, D. M., Lassey, K. R., Lowe, D. C., MacFarling Meure, C. M., Dreier, M. F., Trudinger, C. M., Van Ommen, T. D., and Langenfelds, R. L.: Atmospheric science: Unexpected changes to the global methane budget over the past 2000 years, Science, 309, 1714–1717, 2005. Flechard, C. R., Ambus, P., Skiba, U., Rees, R. M., Hensen, A., van Amstel, A., Dasselaar, A. v. d. P. v., Soussana, J. F., Jones, M., Clifton-Brown, J., Raschi, A., Horvath, L., Neftel, A., Jocher, M., Ammann, C., Leifeld, J., Fuhrer, J., Calanca, P., Thalman, E., Pilegaard, K., Di Marco, C., Campbell, C., Nemitz, E., Hargreaves, K. J., Levy, P. E., Ball, B. C., Jones, S. K., van de Bulk, W. C. M., Groot, T., Blom, M., Domingues, R., Kasper, G., Allard, V., Ceschia, E., Cellier, P., Laville, P., Henault, C., Bizouard, F., Abdalla, M., Williams, M., Baronti, S., Berretti, F., and Grosz, B.: Effects of climate and management intensity on nitrous oxide emissions in grassland systems across Europe, Agr. Ecosys. Environ., 121, 135-152, 2007. Foken, T. and Wichura, B.: Tools for quality assessment of surface-based flux measurements, Agric. For. Meteorol., 78, 83–105, 1996. Frenzel, P., Rothfuss, F., and Conrad, R.: Oxygen profiles and methane turnover in a flooded rice microcosm, Biol. Fertility Soils, 14, 84–89, 1992. Gash, J. H. C. and Culf, A. D.: Applying a linear detrend to eddy correlation data in realtime, Bound-Lay. Meteorol., 79, 301–306, 1996. Gogoi, N., Baruah, K. K., Gogoi, B., and Gupta, P. K.: Methane emission characteristics and its relations with plant and soil parameters under irrigated rice ecosystem of northeast India, Chemosphere, 59, 1677–1684, 2005. Goulden, M. L., Munger, J. W., Fan, S. M., Daube, B. C., and Wofsy, S. C.: Measurements of carbon sequestration by long-term eddy covariance: Methods and a critical evaluation of accuracy, Global Change Biol., 2, 169–182, 1996. Hendriks, D. M. D., Dolman, A. J., van der Molen, M. K., and van Huissteden, J.: A compact and stable eddy covariance set-up for methane measurements using off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 431–443, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-431-2008">https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-431-2008</a>, 2008. Hendriks, D. M. D., van Huissteden, J., and Dolman, A. J.: Multi-technique assessment of spatial and temporal variability of methane fluxes in a peat meadow, Agric. For. Meteorol., 150, 757–774, 2009. Herbst, M., Friborg, T., Ringgaard, R., and Soegaard, H.: Interpreting the variations in atmospheric methane fluxes observed above a restored wetland, Agric. For. Meteorol., 151, 841–853 2011. Hillel, D.: Introduction to Soil Physics, Academic Press, San Diego, 392&nbsp;pp., 1982. Holzapfel-Pschorn, A. and Seiler, W.: Methane emissions during a cultivation period from an Italian rice paddy, J. Geophys. Res., 91, 11803–11814, 1986. Houghton, J. T., MeiraFilho, L. G., Callander, B. A., Harris, N., Kattenberg, A., and Maskell, K.: The Science of Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1995. Hutchinson, G. L., Livingston, G. P., Healy, R. W., and Striegl, R. G.: Chamber measurement of surface-atmosphere trace gas exchange: Numerical evaluation of dependence on soil, interfacial layer, and source/sink properties, J. Geophys. Res-Atmos., 105, 8865–8875, 2000. Hutchinson, G. L. and Livingston, G. P.: Soil-atmosphere gas exchange, in: Methods of soil analysis. Part 4, edited by: Dane, J. H. and Topp, G. C., SSSA Book Series, Madison, WI, 1159–1182, 2002. Inubushi, K., Muramatsu, Y., and Umerayasi, M.: Influence of percolation on methane emission from flooded paddy soil, Jpn. J. Soil Sci. Plant Nutr., 63, 184–189, 1992. IPCC: Good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry. CH4 emissions from rice agriculture., in: IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, edited by: Intergovermental Pannel on Climate Change, Kanagawa, Japan, 2003. Keppler, F., Hamilton, J. T. G., Braß, M., and Rockmann, T.: Methane emissions from terrestrial plants under aerobic conditions, Nature, 439, 187–191, 2006. Kim, J., Verma, S. B., and Billesbach, D. P.: Seasonal variation in methane emission from a temperate Phragmites-dominated marsh: effect of growth stage and plant-mediated transport, Glob. Change Biol., 5, 433–440, 1998. Kroon, P. S., Hensen, A., Van Den Bulk, W. C. M., Jongejan, P. A. C., and Vermeulen, A. T.: The importance of reducing the systematic error due to non-linearity in N<sub>2</sub>O flux measurements by static chambers, Nutr. Cycl. Agroecosys., 82, 175–186, 2008. Kroon, P. S., Hensen, A., Jonker, H. J. J., Ouwersloot, H. G., Vermeulen, A. T., and Bosveld, F. C.: Uncertainties in eddy covariance flux measurements assessed from CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O observations, Agric. For. Meteorol., 150, 806–816, 2009. Lancashire, P. D., Bleiholder, H., Langeluddecke, P., Stauss, R., van den Boom, T., Weber, E., and Witzenberger, A.: A uniform decimal code for growth stages of crops and weeds, Ann. Appl. Biol., 119, 561–601, 1991. Leip, A.: Nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) emissions from a coastal catchment in the Delta of the Po river. Measurement and modeling of fluxes from a Mediterranean lagoon and agricultural soil, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 2000. Liu, G. and Si, B. C.: Multi-layer diffusion model and error analysis applied to chamber-based gas fluxes measurements, Agric. For. Meteorol., 149, 169–178, 2009. Long, K. D., Flanagan, L. B., and Cai, T.: Diurnal and seasonal variation in methane emissions in a northern Canadian peatland measured by eddy covariance, Glob. Change Biol., 16, 2420–2435, 2010. MacKenzie, A. F., Fan, M. X., and Cadrin, F.: Nitrous oxide emission in three years as affected by tillage, corn- soybean-alfalfa rotations, and nitrogen fertilization, J. Environ. Qual., 27, 698–703, 1998. Mariko, S., Harazano, Y., Owa, N., and Nouchi, I.: Methane in flooded soil water and the emission through rice plants to atmosphere, Environ. Exp. Bot., 31, 343–350, 1991. McMillen, R. T.: An eddy correlation technique with extended applicability to non-simple terrain, Bound-Lay. Meteorol., 43, 231–245, 1988. Meier, U.: Growth Stages of Mono- and Dicotyledonous Plants in: Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt und Chemische Industrie [BBCH] – Monograph, Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin, 1997. Mitra, A. P.: Global Change: Greenhouse gas emissions in India, Sci. Rep. 2, Counc. Sci. Ind. Res. Minis. Environ. Forest, 1992. Miyata, A., Leuning, R., Denmead, O. T., Kim, J., and Harazono, Y.: Carbon dioxide and methane fluxes from an intermittently flooded paddy field, Agric. For. Meteorol., 102, 287–303, 2000. Mosier A.R: Gas flux measurement techniques with special reference to techniques suitable for measurements over large ecologically uniform areas, in: Soils and the Greenhouse Effect., edited by: Bouwman, A. F., Wiley, Chichester, 289–301, 1990. Neftel, A., Spirig, C., and Ammann, C.: Application and test of a simple tool for operational footprint evaluations, Environ. Pollut., 152, 644–652, 2008. Neue, H. U.: Methane emission from rice fields, Bioscience, 43, 466–475, 1993. Nisbet, R. E. R., Fisher, R., Nimmo, R. H., Bendall, D. S., Crill, P. M., Gallego-Sala, A. V., Hornibrook, E. R. C., López-Juez, E., Lowry, D., Nisbet, P. B. R., Shuckburgh, E. F., Sriskantharajah, S., Howe, C. J., and Nisbet, E. G.: Emission of methane from plants, Proc. Roy. Soc., 276, 1347–1354, 2009. Nouchi, I., Mariko, S., and Aoki, K.: Mechanism of methane transport from the rhizosphere to the atmosphere through rice plants, Plant. Physiol., 94, 59–66, 1990. Parashar, D. C., Rai, J., Gupta, P. K., and Singh, N.: Parameters affecting methane emission from paddy fields, Ind. J. Radio Space Phys., 20, 12–17, 1991. Parkin, T. B.: Effect of Sampling Frequency on Estimates of Cumulative N20 Emissions, J. Environ. Qual., 37, 1390–1395, 2008. Pattey, E., Strachan, I. B., Desjardins, R. L., Edwards, G. C., Dow, D., and MacPherson, J. I.: Application of a tunable diode laser to the measurement of CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O fluxes from field to landscape scale using several micrometeorological techniques, Agric. For. Meteorol., 136, 222–236, 2006. Rinne, J., Riutta, T., Pihlatie, M., Aurela, M., Haapanala, S., Tuovinen, J. P., Tuittila, E. S., and Vesala, T.: Annual cycle of methane emission from a boreal fen measured by the eddy covariance technique, Tellus B, 59, 449–457, 2007. Rochette, P. and Eriksen-Hamel, N. S.: Chamber measurements of soil nitrous oxide flux: Are absolute values reliable?, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 72, 331–342, 2008. Rossini, M., Meroni, M., Migliavacca, M., Manca, G., Cogliati, S., Busetto, L., Picchi, V., Cescatti, A., Seufert, G., and Colombo, R.: High resolution field spectroscopy measurements for estimating gross ecosystem production in a rice field, Agric. For. Meteorol., 150, 1283–1296, 2010. Sass, R. L., Fisher, F. M., Turner, F. T., and Jund, M. F.: Methane emission from rice fields as influenced by solar radiation, temperature, and straw incorporation, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 5, 335–350, 1991. Sass, R. L. and Cicerone, R. J.: Photosynthate allocations in rice plants: Food production or atmospheric methane?, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99, 11993–11995, 2002. Satpathy, S. N., Rath, A. K., Ramakrishnan, B., Rao, V. R., Adhya, T. K., and Sethunathan, N.: Diurnal variation in methane efflux at different growth stages of tropical rice, Plant Soil, 195, 267–271, 1997. Schfitz, H., Hozapfel-Pschorn, A., Conrad, R., Renuenberg, H., and Seiler, W.: A three-year continuous record on the influences of daytime, season and fertiliser treatment on methane emission rates from an Italian rice paddy, J. Geophys. Res., 194, 16405–16416, 1989. Schrier-Uijl, A. P., Kroon, P. S., Hensen, A., Leffelaar, P. A., Berendse, F., and Veenendaal, E. M.: Comparison of chamber and eddy covariance-based CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> emission estimates in a heterogeneous grass ecosystem on peat, Agric. For. Meteorol., 150, 825–831, 2010. Schutz, H., Seiler, W., and Conrad, R.: Influence of soil temperature on methane emission from rice paddy fields, Biogeochemistry, 5, 295–311, 1990. Schütz, H., Seiler, W., and Conrad, R.: Processes involved in formation and emission of methane in rice paddies, Biogeochemistry, 7, 33–53, 1989. Shindell, D. T., Faluvegi, G., Koch, D. M., Schmidt, G. A., Linger, N., and Bauer, S. E.: Improved attribution of climate forcing to emissions, Science, 326, 716–718, 2009. Simpson, I. J., Thurtell, G. W., Kidd, G. E., Lin, M., Demetriades-Shah, T. H., Flitcroft, I. D., Kanemasu, E. T., Nie, D., Bronson, K. F., and Neue, H. U.: Tunable diode laser measurements of methane fluxes from an irrigated rice paddy field in the Philippines, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 7283–7290, 1995. Suyker, A. E., Verma, S. B., Clement, R. J., and Billesbach, D. P.: Methane flux in a boreal fen: Season-long measurement by eddy correlation, J. Geophys. Res-Atmos., 101, 28637–28647, 1996. Tseng, K. H., Tsai, J. L., Alagesan, A., Tsuang, B. J., Yao, M. H., and Kuo, P. H.: Determination of methane and carbon dioxide fluxes during the rice maturity period in Taiwan by combining profile and eddy covariance measurements, Agric. For. Meteorol., 150, 852–859, 2010. Wang, M., Guan, D. X., Han, S. J., and Wu, J. L.: Comparison of eddy covariance and chamber-based methods for measuring CO<sub>2</sub> flux in a temperate mixed forest, Tree Physiol., 30, 149–163, 2010. Wang, M. X., Dai, A., Shen, R. X., Schutz, H., Rennenberg, H., Seiler, W., and Wu, H.: CH<sub>4</sub> emission from a Chinese rice paddy field, Acta Meteorol. Sin., 4, 265–275, 1990. Werle, P. and Kormann, R.: Fast chemical sensor for eddy-correlation measurements of methane emissions from rice paddy fields, Appl. Opt., 40, 846–858, 2001. Zadok, C. J., Chang, T. T., and Konzak, C. F.: A decimal code for the growth stages of cereals, Weed Sci., 14, 415–421, 1974. Zou, J., Huang, Y., Jiang, J., Zheng, X., and Sass, R. L.: A 3-year field measurement of methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice paddies in China: Effects of water regime, crop residue, and fertilizer application Glob. Biogeochem. Cy., 19, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004GB002401">https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GB002401</a>, 2005.