Gene-Based Modeling of Methane Oxidation in Coastal Sediments: Constraints on the Efficiency of the Microbial Methane Filter.

ABSTRACT: Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is produced in large quantities in marine sediments. Microbially mediated oxidation of methane in sediments, when in balance with methane production, prevents the release of methane to the overlying water. Here, we present a gene-based reactive transport model that includes both microbial and geochemical dynamics and use it to investigate whether the rate of growth of methane oxidizers in sediments impacts the efficiency of the microbial methane filter. We focus on iron- and methane-rich coastal sediments and, with the model, show that at our site, up to 10% of all methane removed is oxidized by iron and manganese oxides, with the remainder accounted for by oxygen and sulfate. We demonstrate that the slow growth rate of anaerobic methane-oxidizing

SUBMITTER: Lenstra WK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10469488 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature