Aerobic and Anaerobic Nonmicrobial Methane Emissions from Plant Material

Methane (CH4) may be generated via microbial and nonmicrobial mechanisms. Nonmicrobial CH4 is also ubiquitous in nature, such as in biomass burning, the Earthʼs crust, plants, and animals. Relative to microbial CH4, nonmicrobial CH4 is less understood. Using fresh (living) and dried (dead) leaves an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2011-11, Vol.45 (22), p.9531-9537
Main Authors: Wang, Zhi-Ping, Xie, Zong-Qiang, Zhang, Bao-Cai, Hou, Long-Yu, Zhou, Yi-Hua, Li, Ling-Hao, Han, Xing-Guo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerobiosis
Anaerobiosis
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
Characterization of Natural and Affected Environments
Emissions
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Leaves
Methane
Methane - metabolism
Oxygen
Oxygen - metabolism
Plant Leaves - metabolism
Plants - metabolism
Plants and fungi
Temperature
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Summary:Methane (CH4) may be generated via microbial and nonmicrobial mechanisms. Nonmicrobial CH4 is also ubiquitous in nature, such as in biomass burning, the Earthʼs crust, plants, and animals. Relative to microbial CH4, nonmicrobial CH4 is less understood. Using fresh (living) and dried (dead) leaves and commercial structural compounds (dead) of plants, a series of laboratory experiments have been conducted to investigate CH4 emissions under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. CH4 emissions from fresh leaves incubated at ambient temperatures were nonmicrobial and enhanced by anaerobic conditions. CH4 emissions from dried leaves incubated at rising temperature ruled out a microbial-mediated formation pathway and were plant-species-dependent with three categories of response to oxygen levels: enhanced by aerobic conditions, similar under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and enhanced by anaerobic conditions. CH4 emissions in plant structural compounds may help to fully understand nonmicrobial CH4 formation in plant leaves. Experiments of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generator and scavengers indicate that ROS had a significant role in nonmicrobial CH4 formation in plant material under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. However, the detailed mechanisms of the ROS were uncertain.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es2020132