Abstract:Oxidation of endogenous methane is an important process affecting the real flux of methane from rice paddies, which is generated and mediated by methanotrophs living in topsoil. Very few data has been available on whether the change of the overall microbial community effects on methane oxidation activity and/or community of methanotrophs, and in turn, the real methane flux from rice paddies under different long-term fertilization practices. Taking an example of a long-term different fertilization trial of a typical rice paddy from the Tai Lake region China, effects of long-term different fertilizations on methane-oxidizing activity and the linkage to possible change of methanotrophs community are studied by laboratory incubation of rice paddy topsoil. The studied long-term different fertilization plots include non-fertilized (NF), chemical fertilizers only (CF) and combine fertilization of chemical fertilizers and pig manure (CFM). Results show that both methane-oxidizing activity and methanotrophic bacterial community (MOBI and MOBII) community of the topsoil samples vary with the different long-term fertilization practices. Compared with the treatments of NF and CFM, methane-oxidizing activity is significantly decreased as well as methanotrophic bacteria abundance and diversity significantly reduced under CF treatment. The variation of observed methane-oxidizing activity among under different fertilizations is shown in coincidence with the change of the abundance and diversity of the methanotrophs community. Therefore, real methane emission capacity from rice paddy may be altered by different fertilization practices, which could be linked to diversity changes of the methanotrophs community under the different fertilization practices. Thus, best management of fertilizer application may be an option for mitigating methane emission from rice paddies. However, the mechanism causing such variation of methanotrophic bacterial activity in rice paddies under long-term different fertilization deserves further studies.