Description:    To quantitatively assess the effects of agricultural practices on methane (CH 4 ) emissions from rice fields, a two-year (2005/2006) field experiment with 2 3 factorial designs was conducted to assess the effects of three driving factors on CH 4 emissions in South China: continuously flooded (W0) and mid-season and final drainages (W2), straw (S1) and nitrogen fertilizer (N1) applications and their controls (S0, N0). Results showed that averaged across all the treatments about 75 % of the seasonal total CH 4 occurred between the rice transplanting and booting stage, while constituted only 33 % of the seasonal total rice biomass during the same period. Averaged across the treatments in 2006, CH 4 emissions were substantially decreased by mid-season drainage up to 60 % (15.6 vs. 39.0 g m −2 ). The decreased CH 4 emissions represented almost all of the decrease in the total global warming potentials. Without straw incorporation CH 4 emissions substantially decreased up to 59 % (15.9 vs. 38.7 g m −2 ). The stimulating effects of straw were significantly greater for W0 than W2 treatment, being also greater in the 2005 than in the 2006 season. A significant inter-annual difference in CH 4 emissions was found when averaged across straw incorporation and N fertilizer applications for the W2 treatment (42.8 and 15.4 g m −2 in 2005 and 2006, respectively). Moreover, N fertilization has no significant effect on CH 4 emissions in this study. Our results demonstrate that although straw effects varied greatly with specific management, both straw managements and water regimes are equally important driving factors and thus being the most promising measures attenuating CH 4 emissions while achieving sustainable rice production. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s10705-012-9503-3 Authors Jinyang Wang, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Agriculture and GHGs Mitigation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China Xiaolin Zhang, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Agriculture and GHGs Mitigation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China Zhengqin Xiong, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Agriculture and GHGs Mitigation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China M. A. K. Khalil, Department of Physics, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207, USA Xu Zhao, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 China Yingxin Xie, National Engineering Research Center for Wheat, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002 China Guangxi Xing, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 China Journal Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Online ISSN 1573-0867 Print ISSN 1385-1314