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Abstract U.S. rice paddies, critical for food security, are increasingly contributing to non‐CO2greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions like methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Yet, the full assessment of GHG balance, considering trade‐offs between soil organic carbon (SOC) change and non‐CO2GHG emissions, is lacking. Integrating an improved agroecosystem model with a meta‐analysis of multiple field studies, we found that U.S. rice paddies were the rapidly growing net GHG emission sources, increased 138% from 3.7 ± 1.2 Tg CO2eq yr−1in the 1960s to 8.9 ± 2.7 Tg CO2eq yr−1in the 2010s. CH4, as the primary contributor, accounted for 10.1 ± 2.3 Tg CO2eq yr−1in the 2010s, alongside a notable rise in N2O emissions by 0.21 ± 0.03 Tg CO2eq yr−1. SOC change could offset 14.0% (1.45 ± 0.46 Tg CO2eq yr−1) of the climate‐warming effects of soil non‐CO2GHG emissions in the 2010s. This escalation in net GHG emissions is linked to intensified land use, increased atmospheric CO2, higher synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and manure application, and climate change. However, no/reduced tillage and non‐continuous irrigation could reduce net soil GHG emissions by approximately 10% and non‐CO2GHG emissions by about 39%, respectively. Despite the rise in net GHG emissions, the cost of achieving higher rice yields has decreased over time, with an average of 0.84 ± 0.18 kg CO2eq ha−1emitted per kilogram of rice produced in the 2010s. The study suggests the potential for significant GHG emission reductions to achieve climate‐friendly rice production in the U.S. through optimizing the ratio of synthetic N to manure fertilizer, reducing tillage, and implementing intermittent irrigation.
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History of anthropogenic Nitrogen inputs (HaNi) to the terrestrial biosphere: a 5 arcmin resolution annual dataset from 1860 to 2019
Abstract. Excessive anthropogenic nitrogen (N) inputs to the biosphere have disruptedthe global nitrogen cycle. To better quantify the spatial and temporalpatterns of anthropogenic N inputs, assess their impacts on thebiogeochemical cycles of the planet and the living organisms, and improvenitrogen use efficiency (NUE) for sustainable development, we have developeda comprehensive and synthetic dataset for reconstructing the History ofanthropogenic Nitrogen inputs (HaNi) to the terrestrial biosphere. The HaNi datasettakes advantage of different data sources in a spatiotemporally consistentway to generate a set of high-resolution gridded N input products from thepreindustrial period to the present (1860–2019). The HaNi dataset includes annual ratesof synthetic N fertilizer, manure application/deposition, and atmospheric Ndeposition on cropland, pasture, and rangeland at a spatial resolution of5 arcmin × 5 arcmin. Specifically, the N inputs are categorized, according to the Nforms and land uses, into 10 types: (1) NH4+-N fertilizer applied to cropland,(2) NO3--N fertilizer applied to cropland, (3) NH4+-N fertilizer applied to pasture,(4) NO3--N fertilizer applied to pasture, (5) manure N application oncropland, (6) manure N application on pasture, (7) manure N deposition onpasture, (8) manure N deposition on rangeland, (9) NHx-N deposition, and(10) NOy-N deposition. The total anthropogenic N (TN) inputs to globalterrestrial ecosystems increased from 29.05 Tg N yr−1 in the 1860s to267.23 Tg N yr−1 in the 2010s, with the dominant N source changing fromatmospheric N deposition (before the 1900s) to manure N (in the 1910s–2000s)and then to synthetic fertilizer in the 2010s. The proportion of syntheticNH4+-N in fertilizer input increased from 64 %in the 1960s to 90 % in the 2010s, while synthetic NO3--N fertilizerdecreased from 36 % in the 1960s to 10 % in the 2010s. Hotspots of TNinputs shifted from Europe and North America to East and South Asia duringthe 1960s–2010s. Such spatial and temporal dynamics captured by the HaNidataset are expected to facilitate a comprehensive assessment of the coupledhuman–Earth system and address a variety of social welfare issues, such as theclimate–biosphere feedback, air pollution, water quality, and biodiversity. Thedata are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.942069(Tian et al., 2022).
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- PAR ID:
- 10427578
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Earth System Science Data
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 1866-3516
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 4551 to 4568
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4551-2022
