Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw
Permafrost contains about 50% of the global soil carbon1. It is thought that the thawing of permafrost can lead to a loss of soil carbon in the form of methane and carbon dioxide emissions2, 3. The magnitude of the resulting positive climate feedback of such greenhouse gas emissions is still unknown...
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Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
2014
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ftuppsalauniv:oai:DiVA.org:uu-233744 2023-05-15T17:55:52+02:00 Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw McCalley, Carmody Woodcroft, Ben Hodgkins, Suzanne Wehr, Richard Kim, Eun-Hae Mondav, Rhiannon Crill, Patrick Chanton, Jeffrey Rich, Virginia Tyson, Gene Saleska, Scott 2014 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-233744 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13798 eng eng Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University epartment of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona Nature, 0028-0836, 2014, 514:7523, s. 478-481 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-233744 doi:10.1038/nature13798 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess biogeochemistry climate change microbial ecology stable isotopes methane Geosciences Multidisciplinary Multidisciplinär geovetenskap Article in journal info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2014 ftuppsalauniv https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13798 2023-02-23T21:45:17Z Permafrost contains about 50% of the global soil carbon1. It is thought that the thawing of permafrost can lead to a loss of soil carbon in the form of methane and carbon dioxide emissions2, 3. The magnitude of the resulting positive climate feedback of such greenhouse gas emissions is still unknown3 and may to a large extent depend on the poorly understood role of microbial community composition in regulating the metabolic processes that drive such ecosystem-scale greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we show that changes in vegetation and increasing methane emissions with permafrost thaw are associated with a switch from hydrogenotrophic to partly acetoclastic methanogenesis, resulting in a large shift in the δ13C signature (10–15‰) of emitted methane. We used a natural landscape gradient of permafrost thaw in northern Sweden4, 5 as a model to investigate the role of microbial communities in regulating methane cycling, and to test whether a knowledge of community dynamics could improve predictions of carbon emissions under loss of permafrost. Abundance of the methanogen Candidatus ‘Methanoflorens stordalenmirensis’6 is a key predictor of the shifts in methane isotopes, which in turn predicts the proportions of carbon emitted as methane and as carbon dioxide, an important factor for simulating the climate feedback associated with permafrost thaw in global models3, 7. By showing that the abundance of key microbial lineages can be used to predict atmospherically relevant patterns in methane isotopes and the proportion of carbon metabolized to methane during permafrost thaw, we establish a basis for scaling changing microbial communities to ecosystem isotope dynamics. Our findings indicate that microbial ecology may be important in ecosystem-scale responses to global change. funded by US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research (award DE-SC0004632) IsoGenie Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) Nature 514 7523 478 481 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftuppsalauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
biogeochemistry climate change microbial ecology stable isotopes methane Geosciences Multidisciplinary Multidisciplinär geovetenskap |
spellingShingle |
biogeochemistry climate change microbial ecology stable isotopes methane Geosciences Multidisciplinary Multidisciplinär geovetenskap McCalley, Carmody Woodcroft, Ben Hodgkins, Suzanne Wehr, Richard Kim, Eun-Hae Mondav, Rhiannon Crill, Patrick Chanton, Jeffrey Rich, Virginia Tyson, Gene Saleska, Scott Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
topic_facet |
biogeochemistry climate change microbial ecology stable isotopes methane Geosciences Multidisciplinary Multidisciplinär geovetenskap |
description |
Permafrost contains about 50% of the global soil carbon1. It is thought that the thawing of permafrost can lead to a loss of soil carbon in the form of methane and carbon dioxide emissions2, 3. The magnitude of the resulting positive climate feedback of such greenhouse gas emissions is still unknown3 and may to a large extent depend on the poorly understood role of microbial community composition in regulating the metabolic processes that drive such ecosystem-scale greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we show that changes in vegetation and increasing methane emissions with permafrost thaw are associated with a switch from hydrogenotrophic to partly acetoclastic methanogenesis, resulting in a large shift in the δ13C signature (10–15‰) of emitted methane. We used a natural landscape gradient of permafrost thaw in northern Sweden4, 5 as a model to investigate the role of microbial communities in regulating methane cycling, and to test whether a knowledge of community dynamics could improve predictions of carbon emissions under loss of permafrost. Abundance of the methanogen Candidatus ‘Methanoflorens stordalenmirensis’6 is a key predictor of the shifts in methane isotopes, which in turn predicts the proportions of carbon emitted as methane and as carbon dioxide, an important factor for simulating the climate feedback associated with permafrost thaw in global models3, 7. By showing that the abundance of key microbial lineages can be used to predict atmospherically relevant patterns in methane isotopes and the proportion of carbon metabolized to methane during permafrost thaw, we establish a basis for scaling changing microbial communities to ecosystem isotope dynamics. Our findings indicate that microbial ecology may be important in ecosystem-scale responses to global change. funded by US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research (award DE-SC0004632) IsoGenie |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McCalley, Carmody Woodcroft, Ben Hodgkins, Suzanne Wehr, Richard Kim, Eun-Hae Mondav, Rhiannon Crill, Patrick Chanton, Jeffrey Rich, Virginia Tyson, Gene Saleska, Scott |
author_facet |
McCalley, Carmody Woodcroft, Ben Hodgkins, Suzanne Wehr, Richard Kim, Eun-Hae Mondav, Rhiannon Crill, Patrick Chanton, Jeffrey Rich, Virginia Tyson, Gene Saleska, Scott |
author_sort |
McCalley, Carmody |
title |
Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
title_short |
Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
title_full |
Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
title_fullStr |
Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
title_full_unstemmed |
Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
title_sort |
methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw |
publisher |
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-233744 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13798 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_relation |
Nature, 0028-0836, 2014, 514:7523, s. 478-481 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-233744 doi:10.1038/nature13798 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13798 |
container_title |
Nature |
container_volume |
514 |
container_issue |
7523 |
container_start_page |
478 |
op_container_end_page |
481 |
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1766163897164759040 |