title: Improving rice production sustainability by reducing water demand and greenhouse gas emissions with biodegradable films.
abstract: In China, rice production is facing unprecedented challenges, including the increasing demand, looming water crisis and on-going climate change. Thus, producing more rice at lower environmental cost is required for future development, i.e., the use of less water and the production of fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) per unit of rice. Ground cover rice production systems (GCRPSs) could potentially address these concerns, although no studies have systematically and simultaneously evaluated the benefits of GCRPS regarding yields and considering water use and GHG emissions. This study reports the results of a 2-year study comparing conventional paddy and various GCRPS practices. Relative to conventional paddy, GCRPSs had greater rice yields and nitrogen use efficiencies (8.5% and 70%, respectively), required less irrigation (-64%) and resulted in less total CH4and N2O emissions (-54%). On average, annual emission factors of N2O were 1.67% and 2.00% for conventional paddy and GCRPS, respectively. A cost-benefit analysis considering yields, GHG emissions, water demand and labor and mulching costs indicated GCRPSs are an environmentally and economically profitable technology. Furthermore, substituting the polyethylene film with a biodegradable film resulted in comparable benefits of yield and climate. Overall, GCRPSs, particularly with biodegradable films, provide a promising solution for farmers to secure or even increase yields while reducing the environmental footprint.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, P.R. China.|Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, D-82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
authors.forename: Zhisheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, P.R. China.|College of Earth Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xunhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Resource and Environmental Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: College of Resource and Environmental Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.affiliation: Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, D-82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Butterbach-Bahl
mesh_terms: D057914:Agricultural Irrigation / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D063566:Biodegradable Plastics / Q000737:chemistry*; D000069599:Crop Production / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D000074382:Greenhouse Gases; D058458:Nitrogen Cycle; D012275:Oryza / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D020959:Polyethylene / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D063566:Biodegradable Plastics; D000074382:Greenhouse Gases; D020959:Polyethylene