Regional scale inversion of CH4 emissions from rice paddies based on atmospheric concentration observations

YANG Wen-wu; PENG Ting; WU Ying; WANG Yu-xiang; ZHU Jun; ZHAO Mei-ling; ZHANG Yi-fan; SHI Xue-jing; XIAO Wei; HU Cheng

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China Environmental Science ›› 2026, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3) : 1298-1309.

Air Pollution Control

Regional scale inversion of CH₄ emissions from rice paddies based on atmospheric concentration observations

YANG Wen-wu¹, PENG Ting¹, WU Ying¹, WANG Yu-xiang¹, ZHU Jun¹, ZHAO Mei-ling¹, ZHANG Yi-fan², SHI Xue-jing², XIAO Wei³, HU Cheng^2,3

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Abstract

Jiangsu Province—one of China’s major rice-producing regions—was selected as the research area. A high-precision CH₄ observation system was established at a height of 50m in Taizhou City, central Jiangsu, and the period from 20^th May to 31^st October 2023, covering the local rice-growing season, was used for analysis. Paddy CH₄ flux was retrieved at a 10d scale by coupling an atmospheric transport model with an optimized inversion framework. The main findings are as follows: (1) The “bottom-up” approach based EDGAR prior inventory exhibited neither distinct temporal variability nor emission peaks for paddy CH₄ fluxes, inconsistent with the observed peak emissions during the tillering-booting stage in July~August in Jiangsu, which should be constrained and calibrated by using atmospheric CH₄ observations. (2) Inversions revealed that both Taizhou City and Jiangsu Province experienced peak CH₄ emissions in early to mid-August, followed by a gradual decline. The peak fluxes reached (966.6 ± 104.6) mg/(m²·d) and (1182.9 ± 128.0) mg/(m²·d), respectively, which were (3.27 ± 0.35) times higher than the prior estimates. (3) Over the entire study period, the posterior mean paddy CH₄ flux for Taizhou and Jiangsu were (307.3 ± 40.5) mg CH₄/(m²·d) and (376.7 ± 49.7) mg CH₄/(m²·d), respectively, (1.37 ± 0.18) times the prior values. These results indicate that the prior inventory substantially underestimated both the magnitude and temporal variation of paddy CH₄ emissions.

Key words

rice paddy CH₄ emissions / atmospheric inversion / tower-based concentration observation / Yangtze River Delta region

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YANG Wen-wu, PENG Ting, WU Ying, WANG Yu-xiang, ZHU Jun, ZHAO Mei-ling, ZHANG Yi-fan, SHI Xue-jing, XIAO Wei, HU Cheng. Regional scale inversion of CH₄ emissions from rice paddies based on atmospheric concentration observations[J]. China Environmental Science. 2026, 46(3): 1298-1309

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