ABSTRACT
Rice occupies a position of overwhelming importance in the global food system. More than a third of the world’s population, predominantly in Asia, depends on rice as a primary dietary staple. More than 90% of the rice in the world is produced and consumed in the Asia-Pacic Region. Increase of 51 million rice consumers are predicted annually (Papademetriou 2000). Rice cultivation is unique in nature because of management and irrigation practices. It is well known that the development of paddy soils is dependent on eld management practices such as submergence, puddling, and addition of nutrients in the form of manure and fertilizers (Kögel-Knabner et al. 2010). This kind of cultivation practice leads to spatiotemporal variations in soil processes that affect trace element (TE) mobility.
