Dataset Information

Terrestrial Vegetation Drives Methane Production in the Sediments of two German Reservoirs.

ABSTRACT: Inland waters and reservoirs in particular are significant sources of methane to the atmosphere. However, little information is available on the extent to which organic carbon from terrestrial vegetation or from internal photosynthesis fuels the methane production. This limits our ability to constrain methane emissions efficiently. We studied the isotopic composition (¹³C, ¹⁴C) of pelagic and sedimentary carbon sources in two small German reservoirs. The methane was enriched by radiocarbon with isotopic ranges (?¹⁴C 5‰ to 31‰) near to fresh terrestrial organic carbon (OC, 17‰ to 26‰). In contrast, potential source OC produced by internal photosynthesis was characterized by negative ?¹⁴C values (-30‰ and -25‰) as derived from signatures of inorganic carbon in the reservoirs. The particulate OC in stream supplies (terrestrial OC) was also ¹⁴C depleted in almost all cases, but highly variable in ?¹⁴C (-131‰ to 42‰). Although the import of terrestrial OC was lower than the amount of OC produced by reservoir-internal photosynthesis, we conclude that the methane production was predominantly fuelled by catchment vegetation. The utilized terrestrial OC was of contemporary origin, fixed within years to decades before sampling and supplemented with reservoir-internal or aged terrestrial OC. Our results indicate that terrestrial biomass is an important driver of methane production in reservoirs receiving significant imports of terrestrial OC.

SUBMITTER: Tittel J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6828770 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Terrestrial Vegetation Drives Methane Production in the Sediments of two German Reservoirs.

Tittel Jörg J Hüls Matthias M Koschorreck Matthias M

Scientific reports 20191104 1

Inland waters and reservoirs in particular are significant sources of methane to the atmosphere. However, little information is available on the extent to which organic carbon from terrestrial vegetation or from internal photosynthesis fuels the methane production. This limits our ability to constrain methane emissions efficiently. We studied the isotopic composition (<sup>13</sup>C, <sup>14</sup>C) of pelagic and sedimentary carbon sources in two small German reservoirs. The methane was enriche ...[more]

PMID: 31685881

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Project description:BackgroundBiological interaction affects diverse facets of microbial life by modulating the activity, diversity, abundance, and composition of microbial communities. Aerobic methane oxidation is a community function, with emergent community traits arising from the interaction of the methane-oxidizers (methanotrophs) and non-methanotrophs. Yet little is known of the spatial and temporal organization of these interaction networks in naturally-occurring complex communities. We hypothesized that the assembled bacterial community of the interaction network in methane hotspots would converge, driven by high substrate availability that favors specific methanotrophs, and in turn influences the recruitment of non-methanotrophs. These environments would also share more co-occurring than site-specific taxa.ResultsWe applied stable isotope probing (SIP) using 13C-CH4 coupled to a co-occurrence network analysis to probe trophic interactions in widespread methane-emitting environments, and over time. Network analysis revealed predominantly unique co-occurring taxa from different environments, indicating distinctly co-evolved communities more strongly influenced by other parameters than high methane availability. Also, results showed a narrower network topology range over time than between environments. Co-occurrence pattern points to Chthoniobacter as a relevant yet-unrecognized interacting partner particularly of the gammaproteobacterial methanotrophs, deserving future attention. In almost all instances, the networks derived from the 13C-CH4 incubation exhibited a less connected and complex topology than the networks derived from the unlabelledC-CH4 incubations, likely attributable to the exclusion of the inactive microbial population and spurious connections; DNA-based networks (without SIP) may thus overestimate the methane-dependent network complexity.ConclusionWe demonstrated that site-specific environmental parameters more strongly shaped the co-occurrence of bacterial taxa than substrate availability. Given that members of the interactome without the capacity to oxidize methane can exert interaction-induced effects on community function, understanding the co-occurrence pattern of the methane-driven interaction network is key to elucidating community function, which goes beyond relating activity to community composition, abundances, and diversity. More generally, we provide a methodological strategy that substantiates the ecological linkages between potentially interacting microorganisms with broad applications to elucidate the role of microbial interaction in community function.

Dataset Information

Terrestrial Vegetation Drives Methane Production in the Sediments of two German Reservoirs.

Publications

Terrestrial Vegetation Drives Methane Production in the Sediments of two German Reservoirs.

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