Impact of agronomy practices on the effects of reduced tillage systems on CH ₄ and N ₂O emissions from agricultural fields: A global meta-analysis

Abstract

The effect of no- and reduced tillage (NT/RT) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission was highly variable and may depend on other agronomy practices. However, how the other practices affect the effect of NT/RT on GHG emission remains elusive. Therefore, we conducted a global meta-analysis (including 49 papers with 196 comparisons) to assess the effect of five options (i.e. cropping system, crop residue management, split application of N fertilizer, irrigation, and tillage duration) on the effect of NT/RT on CH ₄ and N ₂O emissions from agricultural fields. The results showed that NT/RT significantly mitigated the overall global warming potential (GWP) of CH ₄ and N ₂O emissions by 6.6% as compared with conventional tillage (CT). Rotation cropping systems and crop straw remove facilitated no-tillage (NT) to reduce the CH ₄, N ₂O, or overall GWP both in upland and paddy field. NT significantly mitigated the overall GWP when the percentage of basal N fertilizer (P _BN) >50%, when tillage duration > 10 years or rainfed in upland, while when P _BN <50%, when duration between 5 and 10 years, or with continuous flooding in paddy field. RT significantly reduced the overall GWP under single crop monoculture system in upland. These results suggested that assessing the effectiveness of NT/RT on the mitigation of GHG emission should consider the interaction of NT/RT with other agronomy practices and land use type.

Contributors

Jinfei Feng: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draft

Fengbo Li: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draft

Xiyue Zhou: Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysis

Chunchun Xu: Role: Data curationRole: Methodology

Long Ji: Role: InvestigationRole: Methodology

Zhongdu Chen: Role: InvestigationRole: Methodology

Fuping Fang:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1912-1657

Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: Project administrationRole: Writing – review & editing

Dafeng Hui: Role: Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE

Journal ID (publisher-id): plos

Journal ID (pmc): plosone

Title: PLoS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203

Publication date (Electronic): 21 May 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 13

Issue: 5

Affiliations

China National Rice Research Institution, Hangzhou, China

Tennessee State University, UNITED STATES

Author notes

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

* E-mail: Fangfuping@ 123456caas.cn

Article

Publisher ID: PONE-D-17-41160

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196703

PMC ID: 5962074

PubMed ID: 29782525

Copyright statement: © 2018 Feng et al

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Page count

Figures: 8, Tables: 2, Pages: 17

Product

Funding

Funded by: This work was supported by the State Key Program of China (2016YFD0300906) and the Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Award Recipient : Jinfei Feng

This work was supported by the State Key Program of China (2016YFD0300906 to JF) and the Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Categories

Subject: Research Article

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Agriculture

Subject: Crop Science

Subject: Crops

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Agriculture

Subject: Crop Science

Subject: Crops

Subject: Cereal Crops

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Agriculture

Subject: Agricultural Soil Science

Subject: Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Subject: Soil Science

Subject: Agricultural Soil Science

Subject: People and Places

Subject: Geographical Locations

Subject: Asia

Subject: China

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Agriculture

Subject: Agronomy

Subject: Plant Products

Subject: Straw

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Agriculture

Subject: Crop Science

Subject: Plant Products

Subject: Straw

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Agriculture

Subject: Agrochemicals

Subject: Fertilizers

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Organisms

Subject: Eukaryota

Subject: Plants

Subject: Grasses

Subject: Rice

Subject: Research and Analysis Methods

Subject: Experimental Organism Systems

Subject: Plant and Algal Models

Subject: Rice

Subject: Biology and Life Sciences

Subject: Organisms

Subject: Eukaryota

Subject: Plants

Subject: Grasses

Subject: Wheat

Custom metadata

Data Availability All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.