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Climate change and water scarcity may badly affect existing rice production system in Bangladesh. With a view to sustain rice productivity and mitigate yield scaled CH4 emission in the changing climatic conditions, a pot experiment was conducted under different soil water contents, biochar and silicate amendments with inorganic fertilization (NPKS). In this regard, 12 treatments combinations of biochar, silicate and NPKS fertilizer along with continuous standing water (CSW), soil saturation water content and field capacity (100% and 50%) moisture levels were arranged into rice planted potted soils. Gas samples were collected from rice planted pots through Closed Chamber technique and analyzed by Gas Chromatograph. This study revealed that seasonal CH4 emissions were suppressed through integrated biochar and silicate amendments with NPKS fertilizer (50–75% of the recommended doze), while increased rice yield significantly at different soil water contents. Biochar and silicate amendments with NPKS fertilizer (50% of the recommended doze) increased rice grain yield by 10.9%, 18.1%, 13.0% and 14.2%, while decreased seasonal CH4 emissions by 22.8%, 20.9%, 23.3% and 24.3% at continuous standing water level (CSW) (T9), at saturated soil water content (T10), at 100% field capacity soil water content (T11) and at 50% field capacity soil water content (T12), respectively. Soil porosity, soil redox status, SOC and free iron oxide contents were improved with biochar and silicate amendments. Furthermore, rice root oxidation activity (ROA) was found more dominant in water stress condition compared to flooded and saturated soil water contents, which ultimately reduced seasonal CH4 emissions as well as yield scaled CH4 emission. Conclusively, soil amendments with biochar and silicate fertilizer may be a rational practice to reduce the demand for inorganic fertilization and mitigate CH4 emissions during rice cultivation under water stress drought conditions.

An investigation was carried out to quantify the present fluxes of CH 4 and CO 2 from rice soils and also to investigate the controls on gas production. Soil samples were collected from rice field at Mymensingh, Bangladesh to characterize the samples and for ex-situ measurement. Water content was determined by drying to constant weight at 50°C from rice soils. To determine the organic compound present in rice soil, normal pyrolysis was done. Gasclam® was used to measure the gas concentration from both ex-situ and in-situ measurement. Ex-situ measurement was conducted to measure the gas fluxes from the soil and which was validated by measuring concentration ratios in-situ. Moreover, in-situ measurement was carried out to investigate the influences of controls of environment on gas production and migration. In ex-situ measurement the production rate of CH 4 at shallow and deep rice soil was 0.07 mole/tonne dry weight/day and 0.09 mole/tonne dry weight/day, respectively. On the otherhand, the production rate of CO 2 in shallow and deep borehole was 0.23 mole/tonne dry weight/day and 0.29 mole/tonne dry weight/day, respectively. In in-situ measurement the average production rate of CH 4 in shallow soil was 0.34 % while at deep soil it was very low. The CO 2 concentration at shallow and deep soil was 6.37 % and 24.70 %, respectively. The ex-situ measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes are not reliable enough for rice soil as they are invalidated by comparison with concentration ratios of insitu measurements of greenhouse fluxes. There is no strong relationship between atmospheric pressure and patterns of greenhouse gas production in rice soils. Gas concentrations are remarkably constant despite varying pressure. However, the gas production and atmospheric pressure showed fluctuation during the measurement period. There was not enough organic matter in rice soil for detection organic analysis. However in future the organic matter can be extracted and analysed. Key Words: Methane and carbon dioxide flux; Rice field; Environmental controls; Organic analysis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jesnr.v4i2.10123 J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 4(2): 1-6, 2011

Organic and elemental carbon (OC-EC) were measured in 360 PM2.5 samples collected from April 2012 to February 2013 at six provinces in the Veneto region, to determine the factors affecting the carbonaceous aerosol variations. The 60 daily samples have been collected simultaneously in all sites during 10 consecutive days for 6 months (April, June, August, October, December and February). OC ranged from 0.98 to 22.34 μg/m(3), while the mean value was 5.5 μg/m(3), contributing 79% of total carbon. EC concentrations fluctuated from 0.19 to 11.90 μg/m(3) with an annual mean value of 1.31 μg/m(3) (19% of the total carbon). The monthly OC concentration gradually increased from April to December. The EC did not vary in accordance with OC. However the highest values for both parameters were recorded in the cold period. The mean OC/EC ratio is 4.54, which is higher than the values observed in most of the other European cities. The secondary organic carbon (SOC) contributed for 69% of the total OC and this was confirmed by both the approaches OC/EC minimum ratio and regression. The results show that OC, EC and SOC exhibited higher concentration during winter months in all measurement sites, suggesting that the stable atmosphere and lower mixing play important role for the accumulation of air pollutant and hasten the condensation or adsorption of volatile organic compounds over the Veneto region. Significant meteorological factors controlling OC and EC were investigated by fitting linear models and using a robust procedure based on weighted likelihood, suggesting that low wind speed and temperature favour accumulation of emissions from local sources. Conditional probability function and conditional bivariate probability function plots indicate that both biomass burning and vehicular traffic are probably the main local sources for carbonaceous particulate matter emissions in two selected cities.

Atmospheric particulate matters were collected on quartz fibre filters for 24 hours with a low volume sampler from January 2014 to March 2014 at the Southeast Asian mega city (Dhaka, Bang- ladesh). Particulate matters samples were analysed for eleven trace metals with inductively cou- pled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) at Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy. Trace metals were extracted from filters with digestion method using a mixture of HNO3 and H2O2. The average concentration of the determined trace metals of As, Cd, Ni, Cu, Pb, Cr, Fe, Mn, Zn, Sband Se were 3.06, 6.28, 3.77, 11.98, 305.6, 9.2, 2057.0, 42.2, 303.3, 5.47 and 2.43 ng∙m −3 , respectively. Arsenic concentration is much lower in the atmosphere of Dhaka, though Bangladesh has severe arsenic problem in the ground water. Lead and cadmium concentrations showed decreasing trend in Dhaka compared than previous measurements—but still they have very high levels compared than Europe and USA. There is very limited information for Mn, Sb and Se concentrations in Dhaka air. Correlation studies showed that several trace metals had potential joint sources of origin, e.g., manganese is highly correlated with iron (r 2 = 0.97) and nickel (r 2 = 0.84), copper (r 2 = 0.86); lead with arsenic (r 2 = 0.79) and antimony (r 2 = 0.78). Enrichment factors analysis was also done with the data base for the respective metals in earth crust and coal fly ash. As and Cu both have com- bined sources, whereas Cd, Pb and Zn were from coal fly ash.Trace metals concentrations in Dhaka city air were much higher than Europe and USA but comparable or slightly lower than other south Asian countries. This is the first extensive study for the eleven trace metals with ICP-MS in Dhaka, * Corresponding author.