Journal ArticleDOI
Marine methane paradox explained by bacterial degradation of dissolved organic matter
Daniel J. Repeta,Sara Ferrón,Oscar A. Sosa,Carl G. Johnson,Lucas D. Repeta,Lucas D. Repeta,Marianne Acker,Edward F. DeLong,David M. Karl +8 more
TLDR
This paper used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to show that polysaccharide esters of three phosphonic acids are important constituents of dissolved organic matter in seawater from the North Pacific.Abstract:
A lot of methane is emitted from oxygenated seawater, where its production should be inhibited. Seawater incubations and organic matter characterizations reveal that bacteria aerobically produce methane from phosphonates in organic matter. Biogenic methane is widely thought to be a product of archaeal methanogenesis, an anaerobic process that is inhibited or outcompeted by the presence of oxygen and sulfate1,2,3. Yet a large fraction of marine methane delivered to the atmosphere is produced in high-sulfate, fully oxygenated surface waters that have methane concentrations above atmospheric equilibrium values, an unexplained phenomenon referred to as the marine methane paradox4,5. Here we use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to show that polysaccharide esters of three phosphonic acids are important constituents of dissolved organic matter in seawater from the North Pacific. In seawater and pure culture incubations, bacterial degradation of these dissolved organic matter phosphonates in the presence of oxygen releases methane, ethylene and propylene gas. Moreover, we found that in mutants of a methane-producing marine bacterium, Pseudomonas stutzeri, disrupted in the C–P lyase phosphonate degradation pathway, methanogenesis was also disabled, indicating that the C–P lyase pathway can catalyse methane production from marine dissolved organic matter. Finally, the carbon stable isotope ratio of methane emitted during our incubations agrees well with anomalous isotopic characteristics of seawater methane. We estimate that daily cycling of only about 0.25% of the organic matter phosphonate inventory would support the entire atmospheric methane flux at our study site. We conclude that aerobic bacterial degradation of phosphonate esters in dissolved organic matter may explain the marine methane paradox.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The global methane budget 2000–2017
Marielle Saunois,Ann R. Stavert,Ben Poulter,Philippe Bousquet,Josep G. Canadell,Robert B. Jackson,Peter A. Raymond,Edward J. Dlugokencky,Sander Houweling,Sander Houweling,Prabir K. Patra,Prabir K. Patra,Philippe Ciais,Vivek K. Arora,David Bastviken,Peter Bergamaschi,Donald R. Blake,Gordon Brailsford,Lori Bruhwiler,Kimberly M. Carlson,Mark Carrol,Simona Castaldi,Naveen Chandra,Cyril Crevoisier,Patrick M. Crill,Kristofer R. Covey,Charles L. Curry,Giuseppe Etiope,Giuseppe Etiope,Christian Frankenberg,Nicola Gedney,Michaela I. Hegglin,Lena Höglund-Isaksson,Gustaf Hugelius,Misa Ishizawa,Akihiko Ito,Greet Janssens-Maenhout,Katherine M. Jensen,Fortunat Joos,Thomas Kleinen,Paul B. Krummel,Ray L. Langenfelds,Goulven Gildas Laruelle,Licheng Liu,Toshinobu Machida,Shamil Maksyutov,Kyle C. McDonald,Joe McNorton,Paul A. Miller,Joe R. Melton,Isamu Morino,Jurek Müller,Fabiola Murguia-Flores,Vaishali Naik,Yosuke Niwa,Sergio Noce,Simon O'Doherty,Robert J. Parker,Changhui Peng,Shushi Peng,Glen P. Peters,Catherine Prigent,Ronald G. Prinn,Michel Ramonet,Pierre Regnier,William J. Riley,Judith A. Rosentreter,Arjo Segers,Isobel J. Simpson,Hao Shi,Steven J. Smith,L. Paul Steele,Brett F. Thornton,Hanqin Tian,Yasunori Tohjima,Francesco N. Tubiello,Aki Tsuruta,Nicolas Viovy,Apostolos Voulgarakis,Apostolos Voulgarakis,Thomas Weber,Michiel van Weele,Guido R. van der Werf,Ray F. Weiss,Doug Worthy,Debra Wunch,Yi Yin,Yi Yin,Yukio Yoshida,Weiya Zhang,Zhen Zhang,Yuanhong Zhao,Bo Zheng,Qing Zhu,Qiuan Zhu,Qianlai Zhuang +95 more
TL;DR: The second version of the living review paper dedicated to the decadal methane budget, integrating results of top-down studies (atmospheric observations within an atmospheric inverse-modeling framework) and bottom-up estimates (including process-based models for estimating land surface emissions and atmospheric chemistry, inventories of anthropogenic emissions, and data-driven extrapolations) as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
The interaction of climate change and methane hydrates
TL;DR: The synergy between warming climate and gas hydrate dissociation feeds a popular perception that global warming could drive catastrophic methane releases from the contemporary gas hydrates reservoir as mentioned in this paper, but no conclusive proof that hydrate-derived methane is reaching the atmosphere now, but more observational data and improved numerical models will better characterize the climate-hydrate synergy in the future.
Journal ArticleDOI
Methane Feedbacks to the Global Climate System in a Warmer World
Joshua F. Dean,Jack J. Middelburg,Thomas Röckmann,Rien Aerts,Luke G. Blauw,Matthias Egger,Mike S. M. Jetten,Anniek E. E. de Jong,Ove H. Meisel,Olivia Rasigraf,Caroline P. Slomp,Michiel H. in 't Zandt,A. J. Dolman +12 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors synthesize biological, geochemical, and physically focused CH4 climate feedback literature, bringing together the key findings of these disciplines, and discuss environment-specific feedback processes, including the microbial, physical, and geochemical interlinkages and the timescales on which they operate.
Journal ArticleDOI
Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in the environment
TL;DR: It is shown that the most commonly used plastics produce two greenhouse gases, methane and ethylene, when exposed to ambient solar radiation, and plastics represent a heretofore unrecognized source of climate-relevant trace gases that are expected to increase as more plastic is produced and accumulated in the environment.
Journal ArticleDOI
Methanogenesis in oxygenated soils is a substantial fraction of wetland methane emissions.
Jordan C. Angle,T. H. Morin,Lindsey M. Solden,Adrienne B. Narrowe,Garrett J. Smith,Mikayla A. Borton,Camilo Rey-Sanchez,Rebecca A. Daly,Golnazalsdat Mirfenderesgi,David W. Hoyt,William J. Riley,Christopher S. Miller,Gil Bohrer,Kelly C. Wrighton +13 more
TL;DR: Geochemical and biological evidence is shown of active methanogenesis in bulk-oxic wetland soils of a freshwater wetland, and it is estimated that up to 80% of methane fluxes could be attributed to methanogenic in oxygenated soils.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Methanogenic archaea: ecologically relevant differences in energy conservation.
TL;DR: In methanogens with cytochromes, the first and last steps in methanogenesis from CO2 are coupled chemiosmotically, whereas in methenogens without cyto Chromes, these steps are energetically coupled by a cytoplasmic enzyme complex that mediates flavin-based electron bifurcation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Archaeal dominance in the mesopelagic zone of the Pacific Ocean
TL;DR: A year-long study of the abundance of two specific archaeal groups (pelagic euryarchaeota and pelagic crenarchAEota) in one of the ocean's largest habitats suggests that most pelagic deep-sea microorganisms are metabolically active and the results suggest that the global oceans harbour approximately 1.3 × 1028Archaeal cells, and 3.1×10 28 bacterial cells.
Journal ArticleDOI
Oceanic methane biogeochemistry.
TL;DR: It is shown that thermodynamic and kinetic constraints largely prevent large-scale methanogenesis in the open ocean water column, and the role of anaerobic oxidation of methane has changed from a controversial curiosity to a major sink in anoxic basins and sediments.
Journal ArticleDOI
Metabolic, phylogenetic, and ecological diversity of the methanogenic archaea.
Yuchen Liu,William B. Whitman +1 more
TL;DR: The ecology of methanogens highlights their complex interactions with other anaerobes and the physical and chemical factors controlling their function.
Journal ArticleDOI
Oxygen solubility in seawater : better fitting equations
TL;DR: In this paper, uncertainties associated with the routine computation of O2 solubility (Co*) at 1 atm total pressure in pure water and seawater in equilibrium with air as a function of temperature and salinity were examined.