Tag: carbon cycle

In India, paddy or rice cultivation is done across the different regions and in different seasons. The availability of the monsoon and irrigation facility further promote the paddy cultivation. The paddy cultivation occurs in water logged condition and favours the release of methane after the bacteria has respired aerobically. So, the methane release in the country is largely due to the rice fields. Sugarcane plantations, wheat fields and fruit orchard do not need water-logged condition.

The microbes in the paddy field respire and release the carbon dioxide. The increase in carbon dioxide increases the nearby temperature. This further results in the release of methane. Methane, in combination with carbon dioxide becomes a potent greenhouse gas. They trap the sun radiations, preventing them from reflecting back and falling on the earth's surface. This results in raising the overall global temperature. 

Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of commercial organic fertilizers (including manure), biomass burning etc, This is done by a process of nitrification which converts the nitrogen in fertilizer to the production of nitrous oxide. The excessive use of the fertilizers thereby results in an increase in the nitrous oxide production.

The greenhouse gases are called so because they absorb the long wave infra-red radiations reflected from the earth's surface and trap them such that they do not get reflected back to space. This trapping of the long wave infra-red radiations causes an increase in the temperature of the atmosphere, called global warming. CO$ _{2}$, CH$ _{4}$, N$ _{2}$O, CFCs are the gases that are capable of showing greenhouse effect. These have increased in the concentration over the years due to the anthropogenic activities.

Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere up to a specific time horizon, relative to carbon dioxide. It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide and is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide an index of global warming potential for methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and CFCs relative to that of carbon dioxide. The major contribution is from CO$ _2$ (60%),CH$ _4$ (20%), CFC and N$ _2$O attributes to 14% and 6% respectively.