DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Microbial Oxidation of Methane in Anaerobic Soils: Ecological Significance in Mitigating Terrestrial Methane Flux

论文研究：厌氧土壤中甲烷的微生物氧化：缓解陆地甲烷通量的生态意义

• 批准号: 1011093
• 负责人: Mary Firestone
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1011093&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Microbial; Oxidation; Methane

Microorganisms that consume methane can play an important role in controlling global climate since each molecule of methane is about 26 times more effective than carbon dioxide in the greenhouse effect. Although many studies have investigated soil methane consumption, they have focused on methane consumption in the presence of oxygen, overlooking the potentially important role of anaerobic methane consumption (anaerobic oxidation of methane; AOM). Humid tropical forests are globally significant sources of atmospheric methane, accounting for more than 17% of all methane emissions. Boreal and arctic wet soils also release significant quantities of methane to the atmosphere, producing over 10% of all methane emissions. It is important to identify and characterize processes and organisms that help to control methane fluxes from these biomes. Anaerobic oxidation of methane is a potentially important process not previously identified in tropical or boreal terrestrial systems. Preliminary work demonstrates that AOM does occur in both tropical and boreal soils. This dissertation project investigates AOM in soils from Luquillo Experimental Forest (Puerto Rico) and Bonanza Creek LTER (Alaska) as tropical and boreal model ecosystems. Microogranisms and their methane oxidizing activities will be analyzed using molecular and genomic techniques in combination with geochemical analyses. The proposed research will advance our understanding of the microbial basis and distribution of anaerobic methane oxidation, and determine whether this soil process important in climate forcing. This knowledge will help us understand the possible impacts of land use change on the consumption of methane by soils. To help introduce young scientists to ecological research, undergraduate students will be involved in the project through the SPUR (Sponsored Projects for Undergraduate Research) program sponsored by the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley. Upon completion of this project, results will be published in peer-reviewed international journals and presented at international scientific conferences.

食用甲烷的微生物在控制全球气候方面可以发挥重要作用，因为在温室效应中，每个甲烷的每个分子的有效性比二氧化碳高约26倍。 尽管许多研究已经调查了土壤甲烷的消耗，但它们仍集中在氧气存在下的甲烷消耗上，忽视了厌氧甲烷消耗的潜在重要作用（甲烷的厌氧氧化； AOM）。潮湿的热带森林是全球重要的大气甲烷来源，占所有甲烷排放的17％以上。北极和北极潮湿的土壤还向大气中释放了大量甲烷，产生了所有甲烷排放量的10％以上。重要的是要识别和表征有助于控制这些生物群落的甲烷通量的过程和生物。甲烷的厌氧氧化是一个可能在热带或北方陆地系统中鉴定出来的潜在重要过程。初步工作表明，在热带和北方土壤中确实发生了AOM。该论文项目研究了Luquillo实验森林（波多黎各）和Bonanza Creek lter（Alaska）的土壤中的AOM，为热带和北方模型生态系统。微基因及其甲烷氧化活性将使用分子和基因组技术与地球化学分析结合使用。拟议的研究将提高我们对微生物基础和厌氧甲烷氧化的分布的理解，并确定这种土壤过程在气候强迫中是否重要。 这些知识将有助于我们了解土地利用变化对土壤消耗甲烷的可能影响。为了帮助向年轻科学家介绍生态学研究，本科生将通过自然资源学院在加州大学伯克利分校（UC Berkeley）的自然资源学院（UC Berkeley）赞助的SPUR（赞助的本科研究项目）计划参与该项目。该项目完成后，结果将在经过同行评审的国际期刊上发表，并在国际科学会议上发表。