Effects of screenhouse cultivation and organic materials incorporation on global warming potential in rice fields

Global rice production will be increasingly challenged by providing healthy food for a growing population at minimal environmental cost. In this study, a 2-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of a novel rice cultivation mode (screenhouse cultivation, SHC) and organic material (OM) incorporation (wheat straw and wheat straw-based biogas residue) on methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions and rice yields. In addition, the environmental factors and soil properties were also determined. Relative to the traditional open-field cultivation (OFC), SHC decreased the CH₄ and N₂O emissions by 6.58-18.73 and 2.51-21.35%, respectively, and the global warming potential (GWP) was reduced by 6.49-18.65%. This trend was mainly because of lower soil temperature and higher soil redox potential in SHC. Although the rice grain yield for SHC were reduced by 2.51-4.98% compared to the OFC, the CH₄ emissions and GWP per unit of grain yield (yield-scaled CH₄ emissions and GWP) under SHC were declined. Compared to use of inorganic fertilizer only (IN), combining inorganic fertilizer with wheat straw (WS) or wheat straw-based biogas residue (BR) improved rice grain yield by 2.12-4.10 and 4.68-5.89%, respectively. However, OM incorporation enhanced CH₄ emissions and GWP, leading to higher yield-scaled CH₄ emissions and GWP in WS treatment. Due to rice yield that is relatively high, there was no obvious effect of BR treatment on them. These findings suggest that apparent environmental benefit can be realized by applying SHC and fermenting straw aerobically before its incorporation.