REVIEW article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches in Agroecology and Ecosystem Services for Transformative Sustainable Food SystemsView all 5 articles
Greenhouse gas emission and cadmium contamination in rice paddies: Research progresses in trade-off relationships, influencing factors and synergistic mitigation measures
Provisionally accepted
- Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Rice paddies, critical for global food security, confront dual challenges of greenhouse gas (GHG, e.g., CH4, N2O) emissions and cadmium (Cd) contamination. This review systematically summarizes their trade-off relationships, influencing factors, and synergistic mitigation measures. The trade-off is primarily driven by soil redox potential (Eh) fluctuations under alternating flooding-drying. Flooding reduces Cd bioavailability but boosts CH4 emissions, while drainage lowers CH4 but increases Cd mobility. The trade-off relationship was further regulated by soil microbial interactions and rice root physiology. Key influencing factors include soil physicochemical properties such as Eh, pH, organic matter, and agronomic practices including water management, agricultural inputs and crop varieties. Synergistic mitigation strategies involve optimized water management for balancing Eh to reduce both risks, modified biochar/combined amendments for immobilizing Cd and inhibiting CH4, targeted breeding, and optimized fertilization. This review provides a multi-scale framework linking mechanisms to practical management, emphasizing the need for integrated strategies to achieve sustainable paddy production.
Keywords: Cadmium contamination, Greenhouse gas emission, rice paddy fields, synergistic mitigation, trade-off mechanisms
Received: 03 Sep 2025; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qi, Liu, Dong, Zhang, Wang, Wang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xinhua Li, lixinhua_ypjc@saas.ac.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.