Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Cornfields Under Different Irrigation Scheduling Strategies in Tottori, Japan.

In sand fields near the Japan sea, high-demand crops for livestock feed and high efficiency irrigation system for agriculture are required. One such crops for livestock in Japan is corn. We developed an automatic scheduling irrigation system and a scheduling method with internet weather forecast service for the corn yield. Quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sand fields with a shallow ground water tables is important. The objective of this study is to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from corn fields with the chamber method when the irrigation system is applied to best management practices for corn product. The experiment sites were 12 m by 30 m plots for each drip irrigation systems at the Arid land research center (35°32’N, 134°13’E), Tottori University, Japan. The soil was a siliceous sand with a shallow groundwater level down to 9 m below soil surface. We measured carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane fluxes using a closed chamber and analyzed the data using gas chromatography. Soil moisture and evapotranspiration were obtained by time domain reflectomtry and a weighing lysimeter, respectively.  Drainage from the bottom of the lysimeter allowed us to estimate seasonal change in groundwater recharge. The cumulative GHG fluxes from the two irrigation systems were compared.