Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from an irrigated rice of North India

Upland rice was grown in the kharif season (June–September) under irrigated condition in New Delhi, India (28°40′N and 77°12′E) to monitor CH4 and N2O emission, as influenced by fertilizer urea, ammonium sulphate and potassium nitrate alone (at 120 kg ha−1) and mixed with dicyandiamide (DCD), added at 10% of applied N. The experimental soil was a typic ustochrept (Inceptisol), clay loam, in which rice (Oryza sativa L., var. Pusa-169, duration: 120–125 days) was grown and CH4 and N2O was monitored for 105 days by closed chamber method, starting from the 5 days and 1 day after transplanting, respectively. Methane fluxes had a considerable temporal variation (CV=52–77%) and ranged from 0.05 (ammonium sulphate) to 3.77 mg m−2 h−1 (urea). There was a significant increase in the CH4 emission on the application of fertilizers while addition of DCD with fertilizers reduced emissions. Total CH4 emission (105 days) ranged from 24.5 to 37.2 kg ha−1. Nitrous oxide fluxes were much lower than CH4 fluxes and had ranged from 0.18 to 100.5 μg m−2 h−1 with very high temporal variation (CV=69–143%). Total seasonal N2O emission from different treatments ranged from 0.037 to 0.186 kg ha−1 which was a N loss of 0.10–0.12% of applied N. All the fertilizers significantly increased seasonal N2O emission while application of DCD reduced N2O emissions significantly in the range of 10–53%.