Methane mitigation is associated with reduced abundance of methanogenic and methanotrophic communities in paddy soils continuously sub-irrigated with treated wastewater

Abstract Herein, we examined emissions of CH 4 and the community structures methanogenic archaea methanotrophic bacteria in paddy soils subjected to a novel irrigation system, namely continuous sub-irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW). This system has recently been developed by our group effectively reuse TWW for cultivation protein-rich rice. The results showed that, despite not using mineral fertilisers, produced rice yield comparable that conventional practice reduced from fields 80%. Continuous significantly inhibited growth methanogens lower soil layer during reproductive stage plants, which was strongly consistent effective mitigation, resulting vast reduction abundance methanotrophs upper layer. compositions microbial communities were particularly affected studied practices. Overall, this study demonstrated an method produce high simultaneously reduce fields, it also highlighted potential underlying mechanisms greenhouse gas mitigation.