Authors
Sina Schorn, Soeren Ahmerkamp, Emma Bullock, Miriam Weber, Christian Lott, Manuel Liebeke, Gaute Lavik, Marcel MM Kuypers, Jon S Graf, Jana Milucka
Publication date
2022/3/1
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
119
Issue
9
Pages
e2106628119
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Description
Marine coastlines colonized by seagrasses are a net source of methane to the atmosphere. However, methane emissions from these environments are still poorly constrained, and the underlying processes and responsible microorganisms remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated methane turnover in seagrass meadows of Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea. The underlying sediments exhibited median net fluxes of methane into the water column of ca. 106 µmol CH4 ⋅ m−2 ⋅ d−1. Our data show that this methane production was sustained by methylated compounds produced by the plant, rather than by fermentation of buried organic carbon. Interestingly, methane production was maintained long after the living plant died off, likely due to the persistence of methylated compounds, such as choline, betaines, and dimethylsulfoniopropionate, in detached plant leaves and rhizomes. We recovered …
Total citations
20222023202482110
Scholar articles
S Schorn, S Ahmerkamp, E Bullock, M Weber, C Lott… - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022