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Fraction of CH4 oxidized in paddy field measured by stable carbon isotopes

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Abstract

Aims

Estimating the fraction of CH4 that is oxidized (F ox) in paddy field using the stable carbon isotope natural abundance (SCINA) method and discussing the availabilities of δ 13CH4 (original) (newly produced δ 13CH4) and δ 13CH4 (oxidized) (oxidized δ 13CH4) in the method.

Methods

CH4 fluxes from a continuously flooded paddy field and via rice plants, CH4 concentrations in soil pore water and floodwater, CH4 production rates of soil slurries and rice roots, and their stable carbon isotopes (δ 13C) were measured during the rice growing season through field and incubation experiments.

Results

The estimation of F ox in the rhizosphere was the most efficient by using anaerobically produced δ 13CH4 of the soil as δ 13CH4 (original) and δ 13CH4 emitted from the field minus transport fractionation factor (ε transport = −12.82 ‰) as δ 13CH4 (oxidized). So, rhizospheric F ox was measured to be about 10–60 %, relatively high in the first half of the season. As porewater CH4 was potentially affected by CH4 oxidation and transport in field conditions, its δ 13CH4 poorly represented δ 13CH4 (original) or δ 13CH4 (oxidized). However, porewater δ 13CH4 was 10–22 ‰ lower than floodwater δ 13CH4, indicating that around 30–60 % of the CH4 was oxidized at the soil-water interface when porewater CH4 released into the atmosphere. Anaerobically produced CH4 was highly 13C-depleted than aerobically produced CH4, F ox at the soil and root surfaces in lab conditions could be estimated when using the corresponding δ 13CH4 as δ 13CH4 (original) and δ 13CH4 (oxidized), and it was about 5–50 % and almost 100 %, respectively.

Conclusions

The use of δ 13CH4 (original) and δ 13CH4 (oxidized) in estimating F ox in paddy field should be dependent on different CH4-oxidizing zones in different conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to our anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and revision of the manuscript. This study was financially supported by the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB15020103), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2013BAD11B02), the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (41271259, 41201243), and the Jiangsu Province Science Foundation for Youths (BK2012497).

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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

    Guangbin Zhang, Wenxuan Zhang, Haiyang Yu, Jing Ma & Hua Xu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wenxuan Zhang & Haiyang Yu

  3. National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences, 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8604, Japan

    Kazuyuki Yagi

Authors
  1. Guangbin Zhang
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  2. Wenxuan Zhang
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  3. Haiyang Yu
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  4. Jing Ma
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  5. Hua Xu
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  6. Kazuyuki Yagi
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Correspondence to Guangbin Zhang or Hua Xu.

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Responsible Editor: Elizabeth M Baggs.

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Zhang, G., Zhang, W., Yu, H. et al. Fraction of CH4 oxidized in paddy field measured by stable carbon isotopes. Plant Soil 389, 349–359 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2365-5

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