Mitigation of yield-scaled greenhouse gas emissions from rice through biological interventions

Abstract

Irrigated transplanted flooded rice is a major source of methane (CH4) emission. We carried out experiments for 2 years in irrigated flooded rice to study if interventions like methane-utilizing bacteria, Blue-green algae (BGA), and Azolla could mitigate the emission of CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) and lower the yield-scaled global warming potential (GWP). The experiment included nine treatments: T1 (120 kg N ha−1 urea), T2 (90 kg N ha−1 urea + 30 kg N ha−1 fresh Azolla), T3 (90 kg N ha−1 urea + 30 kg N ha−1 Blue-green algae (BGA)), T4 (60 kg N ha−1 urea + 30 kg N ha−1 BGA + 30 kg N ha−1 Azolla), T5 (120 kg N ha−1 urea + Hyphomicrobium facile MaAL69), T6 (120 kg N ha−1 by urea + Burkholderia vietnamiensis AAAr40), T7 (120 kg N ha−1 by urea + Methylobacteruim oryzae MNL7), T8 (120 kg N ha−1 urea + combination of Burkholderia AAAr40, Hyphomicrobium facile MaAL69, Methylobacteruim oryzae MNL7), and T9 (no N fertilizer). Maximum decrease in cumulative CH4 emission was observed with the application of Methylobacteruim oryzae MNL7 in T7 (19.9%), followed by Azolla + BGA in T4 (13.2%) as compared to T1 control. N2O emissions were not significantly affected by the application of CH4-oxidizing bacteria. However, significantly lower (P<0.01) cumulative N2O emissions was observed in T4 (40.7%) among the fertilized treatments. Highest yields were observed in Azolla treatment T2 with 25% less urea N application. The reduction in yield-scaled GWP was at par in T4 (Azolla and BGA) and T7 (Methylobacteruim oryzae MNL7) treatments and reduced by 27.4% and 15.2% in T4 and T7, respectively, as compared to the T1 (control). K-means clustering analysis showed that the application of Methylobacteruim oryzae MNL7, Azolla, and Azolla + BGA can be an effective mitigation option to reduce the global warming potential while increasing the yield