Methane emission in the late rice paddy field is characterized by a declining trend with growth of the rice and a positive relat ionship between daily emission rate and air temperature. Application of rice straw in soil (ARSS) could increase methane emission by 51.11%, and application of rice straw on soil surface (ARSSS) only by 33.98%. The rice tillering stage is a peak period for methane emission. At this stage, the methane emitted amounted to 65.6% of the total emitted throughout the whole growth stage of rice. Applying rice straw could increase the proportion of methane emitted at the rice tillering stage. Compared with ARSS, ARSSS decreased methane emission more significantly in the rice tillering stage and at daily peak emission time of 12.00~16.00.The diurnal change in soil temperature at 5 cm depth was highly related with content of methane dissolved in the soil water. ARSSS could remarkably reduce the content compared with ARSS in the layer of cultivated soil of paddy field.