Rice, microbes and methane (original) (raw)

Global change

Nature volume 403, pages 375–377 (2000) Cite this article

Methane is present at about only 1.8 parts per million in the atmosphere, but is a key player there — it is a greenhouse gas, it is central to atmospheric oxidation chemistry, and it is ultimately a source of stratospheric water vapour, which influences ozone depletion. Moreover, the concentration of methane is increasing rapidly. Hence the interest in the paper by Bodelier et al., on page 421of this issue1, which deals with methane emissions from rice paddies.

Most of the methane in the Earth's atmosphere comes from biological processes, and rice paddies are one of the main sources. A large fraction of the methane produced in rice soils is consumed, however, being oxidized to carbon dioxide by methane oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) in the soil, and so never makes it to the atmosphere. In upland soils, ammonium, which is formed naturally but is also a major constituent of nitrogen fertilizers, can inhibit methane oxidation and methanotroph growth. It has been a common assumption that this should occur in other ecosystems as well. So it comes as a surprise that Bodelier et al. find that, in rice-paddy soils, ammonium actually stimulates methane oxidation and methanotroph growth. This phenomenon may dominate the overall response of methane cycling to fertilization in rice-paddy ecosystems.

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Figure 1: Effects of ammonium fertilizer on methane dynamics in a rice ecosystem.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, California, USA
    Joshua Schimel

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Correspondence toJoshua Schimel.

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Schimel, J. Rice, microbes and methane.Nature 403, 375–377 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35000325

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