Soil–air greenhouse gas fluxes influenced by farming practices in reservoir drawdown area: A case at the Three Gorges Reservoir in China

The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in China has large water level variations, creating about 393 km2 of drawdown area seasonally. Farming practices in drawdown area during the low water level period is common in the TGR. Field experiments on soil-air greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in fallow grassland, peanut field and corn field in reservoir drawdown area at Lijiaba Bay of the Pengxi River, a tributary of the Yangtze River in the TGR were carried out from March through September 2011. Experimental fields in drawdown area had the same land use history. They were adjacent to each other horizontally at a narrow range of elevation i.e. 167–169 m, which assured that they had the same duration of reservoir inundation. Unflooded grassland with the same land-use history was selected as control for study. Results showed that mean value of soil CO2 emissions in drawdown area was 10.38 ± 0.97 mmol m−2 h−1. The corresponding CH4 fluxes and N2O fluxes were −8.61 ± 2.15 μmol m−2 h−1 and 3.42 ± 0.80 μmol m−2 h−1. Significant differences and monthly variations among land uses in treatments of drawdown area and unflooded grassland were evident. These were impacted by the change in soil physiochemical properties which were alerted by reservoir operation and farming. Particularly, N-fertilization in corn field stimulated N2O emissions from March to May. In terms of global warming potentials (GWP), corn field in drawdown area had the maximum GWP mainly due to N-fertilization. Gross GWP in peanut field in drawdown area was about 7% lower than that in fallow grassland. Compared to unflooded grassland, reservoir operation created positive net effect on GHG emissions and GWPs in drawdown area. However, selection of crop species, e.g. peanut, and best practices in farming, e.g. prohibiting N-fertilization, could potentially mitigate GWPs in drawdown area. In the net GHG emissions evaluation in the TGR, farming practices in the drawdown area shall be taken into consideration.