Open Access

ARTICLE

Estimating Carbon Capture Potential of Fallow Weeds in Rice Cropping Systems

by Ge Chen^1,2, Yuling Kang¹, Fangbo Cao¹, Jiana Chen¹, Min Huang^1,*

1 Rice and Product Ecophysiology, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Crop Physiology and Molecular Biology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410125, China
2 Institute of Agroecology and Environment, Yueyang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yueyang, 414022, China

* Corresponding Author: Min Huang. Email:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(1), 71-77. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.022313

Received 04 March 2022; Accepted 20 April 2022; Issue published 06 September 2022

Abstract

Weeds occurred during the fallow season can well perform the function of carbon (C) capture due to receiving little human disturbance. This study aimed to evaluate the C capture potential of fallow weeds in rice (Oryza sativa L.) cropping systems. A six-region, two-year on-farm investigation and a three-year tillage experiment were conducted to estimate C capture in fallow weeds in rice cropping systems. The on-farm investigation showed that the average mean C capture by fallow weeds across six regions and two years reached 112 g m^–2. The tillage experiment indicated that no-tillage practices increased C capture by fallow weeds by 80% on average as compared with conventional tillage. The results of this study not only contribute to an understanding of C capture potential of fallow weeds in rice cropping systems, but also provide a reference for including fallow weeds in the estimation of vegetative C sink.

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Keywords

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