Application of herbicides is likely to reduce greenhouse gas (N2O and CH4) emissions from rice-wheat cropping systems

Herbicides have been widely used to control weeds in croplands; however, their effects on greenhouse gas emissions remain unclear. The effects of three wheat herbicides (acetochlor, AC; tribenuron-methyl, TBM; fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, FE) and two rice herbicides (butachlor, BC; bensulfuron-methyl, BSM) on N2O and CH4 emissions were investigated in this study. In the wheat growing season, applications of AC and FE + TBM significantly reduced N2O emissions by 31% compared with no herbicide use (p = 0.001). In the rice growing season, the application of BC significantly reduced CH4 emissions by 58% (p = 0.022), and BSM significantly reduced N2O emissions by 27% (p = 0.040); however, no significant difference among treatments with regard to the aggregate emissions of N2O and CH4 in the CO2 equivalent for the 100-year horizon was observed (p > 0.05). Relative to control plots, which were not treated with herbicides, the combined application of the herbicides FE and TBM in the wheat season led to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) by similar to 41% (p = 0.002), and the application of BC together with BSM reduced GHGI by 22% in the rice season, although this reduction was not statistically significant (p = 0.158). Further investigation suggested that the inhibitory effect of herbicides on N2O emissions in the wheat field could be ascribed to low soil ammonium nitrogen and less abundance of denitrifying bacteria. The inhibitory effects of separate applications of BC on CH4 emissions in rice fields, in contrast, were linked to high soil nitrate nitrogen and urease activity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.