Modeling denitrification nitrogen losses in China's rice fields based on multiscale field-experiment constraints.

Denitrification plays a critical role in soil nitrogen (N) cycling, affecting N availability in agroecosystems. However, the challenges in direct measurement of denitrification products (NO, N O, and N ) hinder our understanding of denitrification N losses patterns across the spatial scale. To address this gap, we constructed a data-model fusion method to map the county-scale denitrification N losses from China's rice fields over the past decade.

Extreme rainfall reduces one-twelfth of China's rice yield over the last two decades.

Extreme climate events constitute a major risk to global food production. Among these, extreme rainfall is often dismissed from historical analyses and future projections, the impacts and mechanisms of which remain poorly understood. Here we used long-term nationwide observations and multi-level rainfall manipulative experiments to explore the magnitude and mechanisms of extreme rainfall impacts on rice yield in China.

Decline in nitrogen concentrations of eutrophic Lake Dianchi associated with policy interventions during 2002-2018.

Excessive nutrient discharges have resulted in pervasive water pollution and aquatic eutrophication. China has made massive efforts to improve water quality since 2000. However, how long-term policy interventions govern external and internal fluxes as well as nitrogen (N) concentrations is not well known.

Increased extreme hourly precipitation over China's rice paddies from 1961 to 2012.

Rice yield have been affected by the increased extreme precipitation events in recent decades. Yet, the spatio-temporal patterns of extreme precipitation by rice type and phenology remain elusive. Here, we investigate the characteristics of four extreme precipitation indices across China's rice paddy and their potential association with crop yields, by using hourly precipitation data from 1,215 stations and rice phenology observations from 45 sub-regions.