Fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide from soil under forest, grazing land, irrigated rice and rainfed field crops in a watershed of Nepal

Field evolution of CH₄ and CO₂ from soils under four dominant land uses in the Mardi watershed, western Nepal, were monitored at 15-day intervals for 1 year using closed chamber techniques. The CH₄ oxidation rate (mean±SE, g CH₄ m^–2 h^–1) in the forest (22.8±6) was significantly higher than under grazing land (14±2) and an upland rainfed maize and millet system (Bari) (2.6±0.9). Irrigated rice fields (Khet) showed an oxidation rate of 6±0.8 g CH₄ m^–2 h^–1 in the dry season (December–May) but emitted a mean rate of 131 g CH₄ m^–2 h^–1 in the rainy season and autumn (June–October). The evolution of CO₂ ranged from 10 mg CO₂ m^–2 h^–1 in the Bari in January to 1,610 mg CO₂ m^–2 h^–1 in the forest in July. Higher evolution of CO₂ (mean±SE, mg CO₂ m^–2 h^–1) was observed in the Bari (399±39) and forest (357±36) compared to Khet (246±25) and grazing (206±20) lands. The annual emission of CO₂ evolution varied from 86.6 to 1,836 g CO₂ m^–2 year^–1. The activation energy for CH₄ and CO₂ varied between 16–283 and 80–117 kJ mol^–1, respectively. The estimated temperature coefficient for CO₂ emission varied from 2.5 to 5.0. Temperature explained 46–51% of the variation in CO₂ evolution, whereas it explained only 4–36% of the variation in CH₄ evolution.