Analysis of research trends in methane emissions from rice paddies in Korea

Climate change is considered as the greatest threat to our future and descendants. The Korean government has set a target for 2030 to reduce emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 37% from the business-as-usual levels which are projected to reach 851 million metric tons of $CO_2eq$ (Carbon dioxide equivalent). In Korea, GHGs emission from agriculture account for almost 3.1% of the total of anthropogenic GHGs. The GHGs emitted from agricultural land are largely classified into three types: carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), methane ($CH_4$), and nitrous oxide ($N_2O$). In Korea, rice paddies are one of the largest agricultural $CH_4$ sources. In order to analyze domestic research trends related to $CH_4$ emission from rice paddies, 93 academic publications including peer reviewed journals, books, working papers, reports, etc., published from 1995 to September 2017, were critically reviewed. The results were classified according to the research purposes. $CH_4$ characteristics and assessment were found to account for approximately 65.9% of the research trends, development of $CH_4$ emission factors for 9.5%, $CH_4$ emission reduction technology for 14.8%, and $CH_4$ emission modeling for 6.3%, etc. A number of research related to $CH_4$ emission characteristics and assessment have been studied in recent years, whereas further study on $CH_4$ emission factors are required to determine an accurate country-specific GHG emission from rice paddies. Future research should be directed toward both studies for reducing the release of $CH_4$ from rice paddies to the atmosphere and the understanding of the major controlling factors affecting $CH_4$ emission.