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Substantial high‐affinity methanotroph populations in Andisols effect high rates of atmospheric methane oxidation
Author(s) -
Maxfield Pete J.,
Hornibrook Ed R.C.,
Evershed Richard P.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
environmental microbiology reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.229
H-Index - 69
ISSN - 1758-2229
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2009.00071.x
Subject(s) - soil water , methanotroph , anaerobic oxidation of methane , environmental chemistry , chemistry , methane , atmospheric methane , stable isotope probing , bacteria , biology , ecology , microorganism , organic chemistry , genetics
Summary Methanotrophic bacteria in soils derived from volcanic ash (Andisols) were characterized via time series 13 C‐phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) labelling. Three Andisols were incubated under 2 ppmv 13 CH 4 for up to 18 weeks, thus enabling high‐affinity methanotrophs to be selectively characterized and quantified. PLFA profiles from all soils were broadly similar, but the magnitude of the high‐affinity methanotrophic populations determined through 13 C‐PLFA‐stable isotope probing displayed sizeable differences. Substantial incorporation of 13 C indicated very large high‐affinity methanotrophic populations in two of the soils. Such high values are far in excess (10×) of those observed for a range of mineral soils incubated under similar conditions (Bull et al. , 2000; Maxfield et al. , 2006; 2008a, b). Two of the three Andisols studied also displayed high but variable CH 4 oxidation rates ranging from 0.03 to 1.58 nmol CH 4 g −1 d.wt. h −1 . These findings suggest that Andisols, a previously unstudied soil class with respect to high‐affinity methanotrophic bacteria, may oxidize significant amounts of atmospheric methane despite their low areal coverage globally.