Intermittent irrigation changes production, oxidation, and emission of CH4 in paddy fields determined with stable carbon isotope technique

Intermittent irrigation is an important option for mitigating CH4 emissions from paddy fields. In order to better understand its controlling processes in CH4 emission, CH4 fluxes, CH4 production and oxidation potentials in paddy soils, and 13C-isotopic signatures of CH4 were observed in field and incubation experiments. The relative contribution of acetate to total CH4 production (fac) and fraction of CH4 oxidized (fox) in the field was also calculated using the isotopic data. At the beginning of the rice season, the theoretical ratio of acetate fermentation: H2/CO2 reduction = 2:1 was reached, however, in the late season H2/CO2-dependent methanogenesis became dominant. Compared to continuous flooding, intermittent irrigation significantly reduced CH4 production potential and slightly decreased fac-value, indicating methanogens, particularly acetate-utilizing methanogens, were inhibited. CH4 oxidation was very important, especially in paddy fields under intermittent irrigation where 19–83% of the produced CH4 was oxidized. Intermittent irrigation enhanced CH4 oxidation potential slightly and raised fox-value significantly relative to continuous flooding. Intermittent irrigation significantly decreased CH4 flux creating a more positive δ13C-value of emitted CH4 by 12–22‰. A significant negative correlation was found between CH4 fluxes and values of δ13CH4 suggesting that the less the CH4 oxidation, the higher the CH4 emission, and the lower the δ13C-value of emitted CH4. Collectively, the findings show that intermittent irrigation reduced the seasonal CH4 production potential by 45% but increased the fraction of CH4 oxidized by 45–63%, thus decreasing the seasonal CH4 emission from the paddy fields by 71%, relative to continuous flooding.