2023 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Fertilization effects on atmospheric methane uptake by a rubber tree plantation in Thailand: a direct microbial inhibition or an indirect stimulation by higher tree water use?
| Project/Area Number |
21KK0114
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
EPRON Daniel 京都大学, 農学研究科, 教授 (60844305)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
東 若菜 神戸大学, 農学研究科, 助教 (20780761)
村瀬 潤 名古屋大学, 生命農学研究科, 教授 (30285241)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-10-07 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Soil methane / Rubber plantation / Southeast Asia / Fertilisation / Nitrogen cycling / Microbial ecology |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
While the proposal has been adopted in November 2021, the research started in September 2022 due to the Covid 19 and border restrictions. However, the project was successfully completed.
Two additional team trips were organized this year, one in August 2023 (4 researchers + 3 students) and one in February 2024 ( 4 persons + 1 students) for intensive measurements and samplings (CH4 fluxes from soils and tree stems, soil CH4 concentration, microbiology, nitrogen cycling, soil nutrient capture).
The 18-month series of CH4 flux measurements showed a very clear effect of fertilization on the soil CH4 fluxes, not only reducing aerobic oxidation of methane as we hypothesized but also increasing methane production in the soil. We found that fertilization has turned a rubber plantation from sink to CH4 source. The reduction in soil methane oxidation was not related to difference in gas diffusivity. Higher nitrogen concentrations in the fertilized treatments inhibited methanotrophy and enhanced methanogenesis while concomitantly higher concentrations of dissolved organic carbon provided substrates for methanogenesis. Tree stems emitted methane but had a negligible contribution to the CH4 budget of a rubber plantation
Our Thai partners have successfully applied for a large “Reinventing KU” program which includes our JSPS project and through which two of us have been invited twice as Visiting Professors during the last fiscal year which allowed us to experiment in other provinces of Thailand, paving the road for a new research proposal.
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