Methane fueled lake pelagic food webs in a Cretaceous greenhouse world.

ABSTRACT: Methane (CH₄) is a potent greenhouse gas but also an important carbon and energy substrate for some lake food webs. Understanding how CH₄ incorporates into food webs is, therefore, crucial for unraveling CH₄ cycling and its impacts on climate and ecosystems. However, CH₄-fueled lake food webs from pre-Holocene intervals, particularly during greenhouse climates in Earth history, have received relatively little attention. Here, we present a long-term record of CH₄-fueled pelagic food webs across the Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a (~120 Mya) that serves as a geological analog to future warming. We show an exceptionally strong expansion of both methanogens and CH₄-oxidizing bacteria (up to 87% of hopanoid-producing bacteria)

SUBMITTER: Sun F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11536134 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature