Lowland rice production is currently facing serious water shortages in numerous Asian countries. In the North China Plain water limitations are severe. Water-saving rice production techniques are therefore increasingly searched for. Here we present the first study of trace gas emissions from a water-saving rice production system where soils are mulched and are kept close to field capacity in order to compare their contribution to global warming with traditional paddy rice. In a two-year field experiment close to Beijing, CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes were monitored in two forms of the Ground Cover Rice Production System (GCRPS) and in traditional paddy fields using closed chambers. With paddy rice the observed CH 4 emissions were very low, about 0.3 g CH 4 m -2 a -1 in 2001 and about 1 g CH 4 m -2 a -1 in 2002. In GCRPS, the CH 4 emissions were negligible. N 2 O fluxes in GCRPS were similar, 0.5 to 0.6 g N 2 O m -2 a -1 in 2001 and 2002, and emission peaks mainly followed fertilizer applications. In paddy rice, N 2 O fluxes were unexpectedly low throughout the year 2001 (0.03 g N 2 O m -2 a -1 ), and in 2002 larger emissions occurred during the drainage period. So with 0.4 g N 2 O m -2 a -1 the cumulative flux was similar to emissions in GCRPS. Total CO 2 equivalent fluxes calculated according to IPCC methodology were tenfold higher in GCRPS compared to paddy in 2001. In 2002, fluxes from both systems were similar with 175 and 141 g CO 2 equivalents m -2 a -1 from GCRPS and paddy.
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