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Changes in methane oxidation ability and methanotrophic community composition across different climatic zones

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

Microbial oxidation by bacteria with the potential to oxidize C1 compounds (methanotrophs) is the only biological sink for atmospheric methane (CH4). Aerobic methanotrophs are particularly active in forest soils, but the role of aerobic methanotrophs in native forest soils in China remains poorly understood. The pmoA gene, encoding the key enzyme methane monooxygenase (particulate MMO), is widely used to identify methanotrophic communities.

Materials and methods

We collected soils from different vegetation types in one subtropical and one temperate forest in China. Potential CH4 oxidation rates and methanotroph communities were assessed via laboratory incubation and pmoA-based phylogenetic analysis, respectively.

Results and discussion

Across all sampling sites, we observed distinct variations in methanotroph community composition and CH4 oxidation rates. In all soils, CH4 oxidation rates increased with increasing CH4 concentration. Elevated temperature resulted in an increase in the CH4 oxidation rates in coniferous forests, while a decrease in deciduous forests. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses indicated that methantrophic community varied in different vegetation types. The methanotroph communities were dominated by type II methanotrophs (including soil cluster alpha (SCα), Methylocystis, and USCα) and type I methanotrophs (including USCγ and Methylobacter) in deciduous and coniferous forests, respectively.

Conclusions

It is suggested that intrinsic differences in CH4 oxidation rate responses to temperature between coniferous and deciduous soils are likely due to different methanotroph community structures. Taken together, the direction of CH4 feedback responses to disturbance was site specific.

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Acknowledgements

The authors give special thanks to Mr. Gang Yang, YiXin He, Wei Xue, Zhijun Qiu, Dan Zhu, Wenqiang Hu, ZhenZhi Bai, and Ms. JunJun Zhang for their help in sample collection and to Ms. Dan Xue, QiuPing Zhong, XinYa Huang, Wei Li, and LiFan Xiao for some soil chemical characteristics tests.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0501804), the 1000 Talents Program of Sichuan Province of China, and the Youth Science and Technological Innovation Team Program, Sichuan Province (Grant No. 2015TD0026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China

    Lile Zeng, Huai Chen & Ning Wu

  2. Hubei Jingzhou Ancient City Ring National Wetland Park Department, Jingzhou, 434000, China

    Lile Zeng

  3. State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Jianqing Tian

  4. Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Zhiying Yan

  5. College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Linfang Du

  6. Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, 410004, China

    Yan Shen

  7. Research Institute of Tropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou, 510520, China

    Xu Wang

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  1. Lile Zeng
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  2. Jianqing Tian
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  7. Yan Shen
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  8. Xu Wang
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Correspondence to Jianqing Tian or Huai Chen.

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Responsible editor: Weixin Ding

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Zeng, L., Tian, J., Chen, H. et al. Changes in methane oxidation ability and methanotrophic community composition across different climatic zones. J Soils Sediments 19, 533–543 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-018-2069-1

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