Abstract
We investigated the impact of converting a natural tropical freshwater wetland in Uganda into a rice paddy wetland on climate change mitigation, by comparing carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes from the natural section (under different vegetation communities dominated by Cyperus papyrus, Typha latifolia and Phragmites mauritianus) and from a rice paddy section, during the dry and wet seasons. CO2 fluxes (mg C m− 2 h− 1) from the rice paddy section during the dry and wet seasons were 1045.4 ± 46.6 (mean ± SE) and 804.4 ± 50.2 respectively, significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those obtained from all the three vegetation communities of the natural section. However, CH4 fluxes (mg C m− 2 h− 1) from the rice paddy section during the dry and wet seasons were 2.1 ± 0.4 and 5.1 ± 0.5 respectively, significantly lower (p < 0.05) than those observed from all the vegetation communities of the natural section. Considering total carbon emission, it was observed that whereas conversion of natural tropical freshwater wetlands into rice paddies may limit CH4 emission, it compromises climate change mitigation efforts by increasing total carbon emission, that could make rice paddy wetlands net carbon sources. Fluxes of CO2 and CH4 from the wetland were mainly influenced by water level. Further, we estimated that rice paddy wetlands currently emit only 0.72 and 0.14 % of the total annual CO2 and CH4 respectively, emitted from Uganda’s wetland soils due to their low spatial coverage. However, we predict that future emission of both gases from Uganda’s wetlands will mainly originate from rice paddy wetlands due to their rapid expansion rate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Not applicable.
Code Availability
Not applicable.
References
Batson J, Noe GB, Hupp CR, Krauss KW, Rybicki NB, Schenk ER (2015) Soil greenhouse gas emissions and carbon budgeting in a short-hydroperiod floodplain wetland. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences 120:77–95. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JG002817
Bernal B, Mitsch WJ (2008) A comparison of soil carbon pools and profiles in wetlands in Costa Rica and Ohio. Ecological Engineering 34:311–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2008.09.005
Bernal B, Mitsch WJ (2013) Carbon sequestration in two created riverine wetlands in the Midwestern United States. Journal of Environmental Quality 42:1236–1244. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2012.0229
Bhattacharyya P, Dash PK, Swain CK, Padhy SR, Roy KS, Neogi S, Berliner J, Adak T, Pokhare SS, Baig MJ, Mohapatra T (2019) Mechanism of plant mediated methane emission in tropical lowland rice. Science of the Total Environment 651:84–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.141
Boateng K, Obeng G, Mensah E (2017) Rice cultivation and greenhouse gas emissions: a review and conceptual framework with reference to Ghana. Agriculture 7:7. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture7010007
Butterbach-Bahl K, Sander BO, Pelster D, Díaz-Pinés E (2016) Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from managed and natural soils. Methods for Measuring Greenhouse Gas Balances and Evaluating Mitigation Options in Smallholder Agriculture. Springer, Cham, pp 71–96
Chen H, Zhu QA, Peng C, Wu N, Wang Y, Fang X, Jiang H, Xiang W, Chang J, Deng X, Yu G (2013) Methane emissions from rice paddies natural wetlands, lakes in China: synthesis new estimate. Global Change Biology 19:19–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12034
Colbers B, Cornelis S, Geraets E, Gutiérrez-Valdés N, Tran LM, Moreno-Giménez E, Ramírez-Gaona M (2017) A feasibility study on the usage of cattail (Typha spp.) for the production of insulation materials and bio-adhesives. Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen. https://edepot.wur.nl/429929. Accessed 15 Aug 2020
Collier SM, Ruark MD, Oates LG, Jokela WE, Dell CJ (2014) Measurement of greenhouse gas flux from agricultural soils using static chambers. Journal of Visualized Experiments 3:e52110. https://doi.org/10.3791/52110
Conrad R (2002) Control of microbial methane production in wetland rice fields. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 64:59–69. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021178713988
Couwenberg J, Dommain R, Joosten H (2010) Greenhouse gas fluxes from tropical peatlands in south-east Asia. Global Change Biology 16:1715–1732. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02016.x
Davidson NC (2014) How much wetland has the world lost? Long-term and recent trends in global wetland area. Marine and Freshwater Research 65:934–941. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF14173
Davidson NC, Finlayson CM (2018) Extent, regional distribution and changes in area of different classes of wetland. Marine and Freshwater Research 69:1525–1533. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF17377
Elnaggar A, Fitzsimons P, Nevin A, Watkins K, Strlič M (2015) Viability of laser cleaning of papyrus: conservation and scientific assessment. Studies in Conservation 60:73–81. https://doi.org/10.1179/0039363015Z.000000000211
Farmer J, Langan C, Smith J (2017) Carbon dioxide emissions from peat soils under potato cultivation in Uganda. In: EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Vienna, pp 12078
Furukawa Y, Inubushi K, Ali M, Itang AM, Tsuruta H (2005) Effect of changing groundwater levels caused by land-use changes on greenhouse gas fluxes from tropical peat lands. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 71:81–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-004-5286-5
Gomez J, Vidon P, Gross J, Beier C, Mitchell M (2017) Spatial and temporal patterns of CO2, CH4, and N2O Fluxes at the soil-atmosphere interface in a northern temperate forested watershed. Insights of For Res 1. https://scholars.direct/Articles/forest-research/ifr-1-001.php?jid=forest-research. Accessed 20 Feb 2020
Hadi A, Haridi M, Inubushi K, Purnomo E, Razie F, Tsuruta H (2001) Effects of land-use change in tropical peat soil on the microbial population and emission of greenhouse gases. Microbes and Environments 16:79–86. https://doi.org/10.1264/jsme2.2001.79
Inglett KS, Inglett PW, Reddy KR, Osborne TZ (2012) Temperature sensitivity of greenhouse gas production in wetland soils of different vegetation. Biogeochemistry 108:77–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-011-9573-3
IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37530/1/IPCC_AR5_SYR_Final.pdf. Accessed 24 Oct 2019
Ishikura K, Hirata R, Hirano T, Okimoto Y, Wong GX, Melling L, Aeries EB, Kiew F, San Lo K, Musin KK, Waili JW (2019) Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from peat soil in an undrained tropical peat swamp forest. Ecosystems 22:1852–1868. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00376-8
Kao-Kniffin J, Freyre DS, Balser TC (2010) Methane dynamics across wetland plant species. Aquatic Botany 93:107–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2010.03.009
Kayendeke EJ (2018) Water storage dynamics of papyrus wetlands and land use change in the Lake Kyoga basin, Uganda. Dissertation, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Kayendeke EJ, Kansiime F, French HK, Bamutaze Y (2018) Spatial and temporal variation of Papyrus root mat thickness and water storage in a tropical wetland system. Science of the Total Environment 642:925–936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.087
Knox SH, Sturtevant C, Matthes JH, Koteen L, Verfaillie J, Baldocchi D (2015) Agricultural peatland restoration: effects of land-use change on greenhouse gas (CO2 and CH4) fluxes in the Sacramento‐San Joaquin Delta. Global Change Biology 21:750–765. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12745
Köbbing JF, Thevs N, Zerbe S (2013) The utilisation of reed (Phragmites australis): a review. Mires and Peat 13:1–14
Laanbroek HJ (2010) Methane emission from natural wetlands: interplay between emergent macrophytes and soil microbial processes. A mini-review. Annals of Botany 105:141–153. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcp201
Liu X, Guo Y, Hu H, Sun C, Zhao X, Wei C (2015) Dynamics and controls of CO2 and CH4 emissions in the wetland of a montane permafrost region, northeast China. Atmospheric Environment 122:454–462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.10.007
MAAIF (2009) Uganda National Rice Development Strategy (UNRDS), 2nd Draft. Ministry Of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries. https://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/thematic_issues/agricultural/pdf/uganda_en.pdf. Accessed 19 Jan 2020
Marín-Muñiz JL, Hernández ME, Moreno-Casasola P (2014) Comparing soil carbon sequestration in coastal freshwater wetlands with various geomorphic features and plant communities in Veracruz, Mexico. Plant and Soil 378:189–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-013-2011-7
Marín-Muñiz JL, Hernández ME, Moreno-Casasola P (2015) Greenhouse gas emissions from coastal freshwater wetlands in Veracruz Mexico: Effect of plant community and seasonal dynamics. Atmospheric Environment 107:107–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.02.036
Minamikawa K, Tokida T, Sudo S, Padre A, Yagi K (2015) Guidelines for measuring CH4 and N2O emissions from rice paddies by a manually operated closed chamber method. National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba
Mitsch WJ, Mander Ü (2018) Wetlands and carbon revisited. Ecological Engineering 114:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.12.027
Mitsch WJ, Nahlik A, Wolski P, Bernal B, Zhang L, Ramberg L (2010) Tropical wetlands: seasonal hydrologic pulsing, carbon sequestration, and methane emissions. Wetlands Ecology and Management 18:573–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-009-9164-4
Mitsch WJ, Bernal B, Nahlik AM, Mander Ü, Zhang L, Anderson CJ, Jørgensen SE, Brix H (2013) Wetlands, carbon, and climate change. Landscape Ecology 28:583–597. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-012-9758-8
Nahlik AM, Fennessy MS (2016) Carbon storage in US wetlands. Nature Communications 7. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13835
Nahlik AM, Mitsch WJ (2011) Methane emissions from tropical freshwater wetlands located in different climatic zones of Costa Rica. Global Change Biology 17:1321–1334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02190.x
NEMA (2018) State of Environment Report (2016/2017). National Environment Management Authority NEMA, Kampala, Uganda. https://nema.go.ug/projects/national-state-environment-report-201617. Accessed 20 Jan 2020
Nicoloso RD, Bayer C, Denega GL, Oliveira PA, Higarashi MM, Corrêa JC, Lopes LD (2013) Gas chromatography and photoacoustic spectroscopy for the assessment of soil greenhouse gases emissions. Ciência Rural 43:262–269. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-84782013000200012
Olsson L, Ye S, Yu X, Wei M, Krauss KW, Brix H (2015) Factors influencing CO2 and CH4 emissions from coastal wetlands in the Liaohe Delta, Northeast China. Biogeosciences 12:4965–4977. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4965-2015
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (2018) Global wetland outlook: State of the world’s wetlands and their services to people. Gland, Switzerland: Ramsar Convention Secretariat. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b256c78e17ba335ea89fe1f/t/5ca36fb7419202af31e1de33/1554214861856/Ramsar+GWO_ENGLISH_WEB+2019UPDATE.pdf. Accessed 12 Sept 2019
Richards B, Craft CB (2015) Greenhouse gas fluxes from restored agricultural wetlands and natural wetlands, Northwestern Indiana. In: Vymazal J (ed) The role of natural and constructed wetlands in nutrient cycling and retention on the landscape. Springer, Cham, pp 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08177-9_2
Sha C, Mitsch WJ, Mander Ü, Lu J, Batson J, Zhang L, He W (2011) Methane emissions from freshwater riverine wetlands. Ecological Engineering 37:16–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2010.07.022
Singh C, Tiwari S, Boudh S, Singh JS (2017) Biochar application in management of paddy crop production and methane mitigation. Agro-Environmental Sustainability. Springer, Cham, pp 123–145
Sjögersten S, Black CR, Evers S, Hoyos-Santillan J, Wright EL, Turner BL (2014) Tropical wetlands: A missing link in the global carbon cycle? Global Biogeochemical Cycles 28:1371–1386. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GB004844
Sun Y, Huang S, Yu X, Zhang W (2013) Stability and saturation of soil organic carbon in rice fields: evidence from a long-term fertilization experiment in subtropical China. Journal of Soils and Sediments 13:1327–1334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0741-z
Villa JA, Bernal B (2018) Carbon sequestration in wetlands, from science to practice: An overview of the biogeochemical process, measurement methods, and policy framework. Ecological Engineering 114:115–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.06.037
Were D, Kansiime F, Fetahi T, Cooper A, Jjuuko C (2019) Carbon sequestration by wetlands: A critical review of enhancement measures for climate change mitigation. Earth Systems and Environment 3:327–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-019-00094-0
Were D, Kansiime F, Fetahi T, Hein T (2020) A natural tropical freshwater wetland is a better climate change mitigation option through soil organic carbon storage compared to a rice paddy wetland. SN Applied Sciences 2:951. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-2746-8
Were D, Kansiime F, Fetahi T, Hein T (2021) Carbon dioxide and methane fluxes from various vegetation communities of a natural tropical freshwater wetland in different seasons. Environmental Progress. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40710-021-00497-0
Acknowledgements
Financial support for this study was provided by the African Centre of Excellence for Water Management (ACEWM), under the World Bank’s African Centres of Excellence (ACE II) Project. Additional funding was provided by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria through Mag. Gerold Winkler and Prof. Thomas Hein. We appreciate the local community members neighbouring Naigombwa wetland for the good hospitality and support during field sampling. More thanks go to the Department of Environmental Management, Makerere University for offering laboratory and working space, and to Mr. Enock Kajubi for mapping the study area. Lastly, we thank Mr. Peter Mutua at the International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya for the technical assistance during the analysis of gas samples.
Funding
This work was supported by the African Centre of Excellence for Water Management (ACEWM) (Grant No. ACEWM/GSR/9813/10), under the World Bank’s African Centres of Excellence (ACE II) Project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The study was conceptualized and designed by DW and FK. DW carried out data collection and analysis, and wrote the first draft manuscript. FK, TF and TH reviewed, edited and contributed to the discussion of the manuscript. Funding acquisition was by TF and TH. The study was supervised by FK, TF and TH. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethics Approval
Ethics approval was not required for this study.
Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
Consent for Publication
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Were, D., Kansiime, F., Fetahi, T. et al. Carbon Dioxide and Methane Fluxes from a Tropical Freshwater Wetland Under Natural and Rice Paddy Conditions: Implications for Climate Change Mitigation. Wetlands 41, 52 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01451-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01451-4