Abstract
Rice is a staple food for nearly half of the world's population, but rice paddies constitute a major source of anthropogenic CH4 emissions. Root exudates from growing rice plants are an important substrate for methane-producing microorganisms. Therefore, breeding efforts optimizing rice plant photosynthate allocation to grains, i.e., increasing harvest index (HI), are widely expected to reduce CH4 emissions with higher yield. Here we show, by combining a series of experiments, meta-analyses and an expert survey, that the potential of CH4 mitigation from rice paddies through HI improvement is in fact small. Whereas HI improvement reduced CH4 emissions under continuously flooded (CF) irrigation, it did not affect CH4 emissions in systems with intermittent irrigation (II). We estimate that future plant breeding efforts aimed at HI improvement to the theoretical maximum value will reduce CH4 emissions in CF systems by 4.4%. However, CF systems currently make up only a small fraction of the total rice growing area (i.e., 27% of the Chinese rice paddy area). Thus, to achieve substantial CH4 mitigation from rice agriculture, alternative plant breeding strategies may be needed, along with alternative management.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Global Change Biology |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Jan 1 2018 |
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Keywords
- climate change
- food security
- greenhouse gases
- meta-analysis
- water management
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Global and Planetary Change
- Environmental Chemistry
- Ecology
- Environmental Science(all)
Cite this
Limited potential of harvest index improvement to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies. / Jiang, Yu; Qian, Haoyu; Wang, Ling; Feng, Jinfei; Huang, Shan; Hungate, Bruce A; van Kessel, Chris; Horwath, William R.; Zhang, Xingyue; Qin, Xiaobo; Li, Yue; Feng, Xiaomin; Zhang, Jun; Deng, Aixing; Zheng, Chenyan; Song, Zhenwei; Hu, Shuijin; van Groenigen, Kees Jan; Zhang, Weijian.
In: Global Change Biology, 01.01.2018.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Limited potential of harvest index improvement to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies
AU - Jiang, Yu
AU - Qian, Haoyu
AU - Wang, Ling
AU - Feng, Jinfei
AU - Huang, Shan
AU - Hungate, Bruce A
AU - van Kessel, Chris
AU - Horwath, William R.
AU - Zhang, Xingyue
AU - Qin, Xiaobo
AU - Li, Yue
AU - Feng, Xiaomin
AU - Zhang, Jun
AU - Deng, Aixing
AU - Zheng, Chenyan
AU - Song, Zhenwei
AU - Hu, Shuijin
AU - van Groenigen, Kees Jan
AU - Zhang, Weijian
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Rice is a staple food for nearly half of the world's population, but rice paddies constitute a major source of anthropogenic CH4 emissions. Root exudates from growing rice plants are an important substrate for methane-producing microorganisms. Therefore, breeding efforts optimizing rice plant photosynthate allocation to grains, i.e., increasing harvest index (HI), are widely expected to reduce CH4 emissions with higher yield. Here we show, by combining a series of experiments, meta-analyses and an expert survey, that the potential of CH4 mitigation from rice paddies through HI improvement is in fact small. Whereas HI improvement reduced CH4 emissions under continuously flooded (CF) irrigation, it did not affect CH4 emissions in systems with intermittent irrigation (II). We estimate that future plant breeding efforts aimed at HI improvement to the theoretical maximum value will reduce CH4 emissions in CF systems by 4.4%. However, CF systems currently make up only a small fraction of the total rice growing area (i.e., 27% of the Chinese rice paddy area). Thus, to achieve substantial CH4 mitigation from rice agriculture, alternative plant breeding strategies may be needed, along with alternative management.
AB - Rice is a staple food for nearly half of the world's population, but rice paddies constitute a major source of anthropogenic CH4 emissions. Root exudates from growing rice plants are an important substrate for methane-producing microorganisms. Therefore, breeding efforts optimizing rice plant photosynthate allocation to grains, i.e., increasing harvest index (HI), are widely expected to reduce CH4 emissions with higher yield. Here we show, by combining a series of experiments, meta-analyses and an expert survey, that the potential of CH4 mitigation from rice paddies through HI improvement is in fact small. Whereas HI improvement reduced CH4 emissions under continuously flooded (CF) irrigation, it did not affect CH4 emissions in systems with intermittent irrigation (II). We estimate that future plant breeding efforts aimed at HI improvement to the theoretical maximum value will reduce CH4 emissions in CF systems by 4.4%. However, CF systems currently make up only a small fraction of the total rice growing area (i.e., 27% of the Chinese rice paddy area). Thus, to achieve substantial CH4 mitigation from rice agriculture, alternative plant breeding strategies may be needed, along with alternative management.
KW - climate change
KW - food security
KW - greenhouse gases
KW - meta-analysis
KW - water management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058446282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85058446282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/gcb.14529
DO - 10.1111/gcb.14529
M3 - Article
JO - Global Change Biology
JF - Global Change Biology
SN - 1354-1013
ER -