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Syntrophic microbiomes associated with methane suppressive irrigation in rice

Lau, Kenny J.X.1; Ma, Ali1; Maria Shibu, Thankaraj Salammal1; Ramachandran, Srinivasan1; Naqvi, Naweed I.1

Published May 04, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vt4b8gv67

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Abstract

Rice, a staple crop of half of the world’s population, is grown predominantly in flooded paddies which is one of the largest contributors to methane emissions. An effective approach is to minimise the anaerobic flooded conditions that favour the growth of methanogenic archaea. Our findings show that controlled irrigation can reduce methane emissions by up to 90%. In addition, methane levels stayed comparatively low in plots without rice plants. The microbial communities in empty plots were compositional similar to those observed in plots with rice cultivation. Methane is produced by the anaerobic decay of organic matter. Since methane is insoluble in water, it could escape from flooded paddies via the plant aerenchyma roots. The microbial soil dynamics under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions are still not well understood. In this study, both empirical methane measurements and microbiome profiles were presented under flood and drip irrigated conditions in an outdoor field in Singapore.