Sensing and Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Rice Fields to the Near Field Atmosphere

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rice fields have huge effects on climate change. Low-cost systems and management practices to quantify and reduce GHGs emission rates are needed to achieve a better climate. The typical GHGs estimation processes are expensive and mainly depend on high-cost laboratory equipment. This study introduces a low-cost sensor-based GHG sampling and estimation system for rice fields. For this, a fully automatic gas chamber with a sensor-integrated gas accumulator and quantifier unit was designed and implemented to study its performance in the estimation efficiency of greenhouse gases (CH4, N2O, and CO2) from rice fields for two crop seasons. For each crop season, three paddy plots were prepared at the experimental site and then subjected to different irrigation methods (continuous flooding (CF), intermittent flooding (IF), and controlled intermittent flooding (CIF)) and fertilizer treatments to study the production and emission rates of GHGs throughout the crop growing season at regular intervals. A weather station was installed on the site to record the seasonal temperature and rainfall events. The seasonal total CH4 emission was affected by the effects of irrigation treatments. The mean CH4 emission in the CIF field was smaller than in other treatments. CH4 and N2O emission peaks were high during the vegetative and reproductive phases of rice growth, respectively. The results indicated that CIF treatment is most suitable in terms of rice productivity and higher water use efficiency. The application of nitrogen fertilizers produced some peaks in N2O emissions. On the whole, the proposed low-cost GHGs estimation system performed well during both crop seasons and it was found that the adaption of CIF treatment in rice fields could significantly reduce GHG emissions and increase rice productivity. The research results also suggested some mitigation strategies that could reduce the production of GHGs from rice fields.