Recently, researchers from China National Rice Research Institute reported a novel pathway, culturing with a specially developed high-stalk rice variety, to mitigate Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission from ponds. Relevant results were published in Environmental Science & Technology.

Aquaculture pond is an important artificial aquatic system for global food fish production whereas a hotspot of GHG emission. The mechanisms underlying its GHG emission and relevant GHG mitigation strategies are still poorly understood. Researchers of this study constructed a novel co-culture system in the aquaculture pond based on a specially developed high-stalk rice variety. A two-year field study revealed that high-stalk rice reduced CH4 and N2O emissions by 64.4% and 76.2% respectively. Planting high-stalk rice significantly increased the content of O2 and the abundance of pmoA in the sediment, thus prompting CH4 oxidation in the ponds. The reduction of N2O emission from ponds was attributed to the decreased inorganic nitrogen as well as amoA-B and nirS in the sediment induced by rice. Planting high-stalk rice in the ponds also increased rice yields and net economic benefit. These findings suggest that breeding appropriate emergent aquatic plants is a potential pathway to mitigate GHG emission from aquaculture ponds with improved food yield and higher economic benefits.

This work entitled “Higher Food Yields and Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Aquaculture Ponds with High-Stalk Rice Planted” was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41877548 and 41907410) and “Pioneer” and “Leading Goose” R&D Program of Zhejiang (No. 2022C02008 and 2022C02058).

Original link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.3c02667