Volume: 1, 2022
1st International PhD Student’s Conference at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland: ENVIRONMENT – PLANT – ANIMAL – PRODUCT
Abstract number: E004
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24326/ICDSUPL1.E004
Published online: 26 April 2022
ICDSUPL, 1, E004 (2022)
Spatial-temporal changes of atmospheric methane content from rice cultivation regions
Katarzyna Kozicka1, Dariusz Gozdowski1, Elżbieta Wójcik-Gront1
1 Department of Biometry, Institute of Agriculture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
* Corresponding author: katarzyna_kozicka@sggw.edu.pl
Abstract
Rice is one of the most important crops in the world with a cultivation area covering around 150 million hectares, of which around 50% is irrigated and flooded for most of the rice-growing season. The rice-growing area is mainly located in Southeast Asia, which accounts for 90% of the world’s rice cultivation. The cultivation of rice is associated with increased methane (CH4) emissions, because of the practice of flooding rice fields. CH4 is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, next to carbon dioxide (CO2). Its global warming potential (GWP) over a 100-year time horizon is 25 times greater than that of CO2. Global CH4 emissions from rice fields are estimated to be more than 8% of total global anthropogenic CH4 emissions. Nowadays, mapping CH4 content at a global scale is possible using satellite sensors. Sample of such a sensor is TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) placed on the Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5P) satellite board. In this study, the evaluation of spatial-temporal changes in CH4 content in the atmosphere for selected countries and regions with high CH4 emissions from rice cultivation in 2019–2021 was performed. CH4 content in the atmosphere is characterized by long-term increases and seasonal variability. During the period of the study, the mean yearly increase in CH4 was about 15 ppb for all the studied areas, however, large differences were observed between the countries/regions. The highest increase (20 ppb per year) was observed for the Southeast states of India, while the lowest increase was observed for countries located in the Southeast corner of Asia, i.e., Thailand (6 ppb per year), Vietnam, and Cambodia (12 ppb per year). For most of the other countries/regions, the mean increase in CH4 was in the range from 13 to 18 ppb per year. Seasonal changes of CH4 content were characterized by the lowest CH4 content at the beginning of the year while the highest content during autumn coincides in time with intensive growth of rice. It indicates that CH4 emissions from paddy fields may have a significant effect on the seasonal variability of the CH4 content in the atmosphere. Relationships evaluated separately for each country/region proved in most cases positive correlations between CH4 content in the atmosphere with estimated GHG emissions from croplands. This confirms that the CH4 content is higher in areas with a high concentration of rice cultivation compared to neighboring areas.
How to cite
K. Kozicka, D. Gozdowski, E. Wójcik-Gront, 2022. Spatial-temporal changes of atmospheric methane content from rice cultivation regions. In: 1st International PhD Student’s Conference at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland: Environment – Plant – Animal – Product. https://doi.org/10.24326/ICDSUPL1/E004