Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions Reduced Following Conversion of Rice Paddies to Inland Crab Fish Aquaculture in Southeast China

Aquaculture is an important source of atmospheric methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), while few direct flux measurements are available for their regional and global source strength estimates. A parallel field experiment was performed to measure annual CH4 and N2O fluxes from rice paddies and rice paddy-converted inland crab-fish aquaculture wetlands in southeast China. Besides N2O fluxes dependent on water/sediment mineral N and CH4 fluxes related to water chemical oxygen demand, both CH4 and N2O fluxes from aquaculture were related to water/sediment temperature, sediment dissolved organic carbon, and water dissolved oxygen concentration. Annual CH4 and N2O fluxes from inland aquaculture averaged 0.37 mg m(-2) h(-1) and 48.1 mu g m(-2) h(-1), yielding 32.57 kg ha(-1) and 2.69 kg N2O-N ha(-1), respectively. The conversion of rice paddies to aquaculture significantly reduced CH4 and N2O emissions by 48% and 56%, respectively. The emission factor for N2O was estimated to be 0.66% of total N input in the feed or 1.64 g N2O-N kg(-1) aquaculture production in aquaculture. The conversion of rice paddies to inland aquaculture would benefit for reconciling greenhouse gas mitigation and agricultural income increase as far as global warming potentials and net ecosystem economic profits are of concomitant concern. Some agricultural practices such as better aeration and feeding, and fallow season dredging would help to lower CH4 and N2O emissions from inland aquaculture. More field measurements from inland aquaculture are highly needed to gain an insight into national and global accounting of CH4 and N2O emissions.