Plant root exudates increase methane emissions through direct and indirect pathways

Waldo, Nicholas B.; Hunt, Brianna K.; Fadely, Eleanor C.; Moran, James J.; Neumann, Rebecca B.

doi:10.1007/s10533-019-00600-6

Title: Plant root exudates increase methane emissions through direct and indirect pathways

Journal Article · Thu Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Biogeochemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-019-00600-6· OSTI ID:1598837

^[1]; Hunt, Brianna K. ^[1]; Fadely, Eleanor C. ^[1];

^[2];

^[1]

Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

We report that the largest natural source of methane (CH₄) to the atmosphere is wetlands, which produce 20% to 50% of total global emissions. Vascular plants play a key role regulating wetland CH₄ emissions through multiple mechanisms. They often contain aerenchymatous tissues which act as a diffusive pathway for CH₄ to travel from the anoxic soil to the atmosphere and for O₂ to diffuse into the soil and enable methanotrophy. Plants also exude carbon from their roots which stimulates microbial activity and fuels methanogenesis. This study investigated these mechanisms in a laboratory experiment utilizing rootboxes containing either Carex aquatilis plants, silicone tubes that simulated aerenchymatous gas transfer, or only soil as a control. CH₄ emissions were over 50 times greater from planted boxes than from control boxes or simulated plants, indicating that the physical transport pathway of aerenchyma was of little importance when not paired with other effects of plant biology. Plants were exposed to ¹³CO₂ at two time-points and subsequent enrichment of root tissue, rhizosphere soil, and emitted CH4 was used in an isotope mixing model to determine the proportion of plant-derived versus soil-derived carbon supporting methanogenesis. Results showed that carbon exuded by plants was converted to CH₄ but also that planted boxes emitted 28 times more soil-derived carbon than the other experimental treatments. At the end of the experiment, emissions of excess soil-derived carbon from planted boxes exceeded the emission of plant-derived carbon. Finally, this result signifies that plants and root exudates altered the soil chemical environment, increased microbial metabolism, and/or changed the microbial community such that microbial utilization of soil carbon was increased (e.g. microbial priming) and/or oxidation of soil-derived CH₄ was decreased (e.g., by microbial competition for oxygen).

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010338; AC05-76RL01830; SC0014664

OSTI ID:: 1598837

Journal Information:: Biogeochemistry, Vol. 145, Issue 1-2; ISSN 0168-2563

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 43 works

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