Methane and nitrous oxide emissions under no-till farming in China: a meta-analysis

No-till (NT) practices are among promising options toward adaptation and mitigation of climate change. However, the mitigation effectiveness of NT depends not only on its carbon sequestration potential but also on soil-derived CH4 and N2O emissions. A meta-analysis was conducted, using a dataset involving 136 comparisons from 39 studies in China, to identify site-specific factors which influence CH4 emission, CH4 uptake, and N2O emission under NT. Comparative treatments involved NT without residue retention (NT0), NT with residue retention (NTR), compared to plow tillage (PT) with residue removed (PT0). Overall, NT0 significantly decreased CH4 emission by ~30% (P < 0.05) compared to PT0 with an average emission 218.8 kg ha(-1) for rice paddies. However, the increase in N2O emission could partly offset the benefits of the decrease in CH4 emission under NT compared to PT0. NTR significantly enhanced N2O emission by 82.1%, 25.5%, and 20.8% (P < 0.05) compared to PT0 for rice paddies, acid soils, and the first 5 years of the experiments, respectively. The results from categorical meta-analysis indicated that the higher N2O emission could be mitigated by adopting NT within alkaline soils, for long-term duration, and with less N fertilization input when compared to PT0. In addition, the natural log (lnR) of response ratio of CH4 and N2O emissions under NT correlated positively (enhancing emission) with climate factors (temperature and precipitation) and negatively (reducing emission) with experimental duration, suggesting that avoiding excess soil wetness and using NT for a long term could enhance the benefits of NT. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the conditions favoring greenhouse gas(es) reductions is essential to achieving climate change mitigation and advancing food security in China.