Agriculture's impact on microbial diversity and associated fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane.

ABSTRACT: Agriculture has marked impacts on the production of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and consumption of methane (CH(4)) by microbial communities in upland soils-Earth's largest biological sink for atmospheric CH(4). To determine whether the diversity of microbes that catalyze the flux of these greenhouse gases is related to the magnitude and stability of these ecosystem-level processes, we conducted molecular surveys of CH(4)-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) and total bacterial diversity across a range of land uses and measured the in situ flux of CH(4) and CO(2) at a site in the upper United States Midwest. Conversion of native lands to row-crop agriculture led to a sevenfold reduction in CH(4) consumption and a proportionate decrease in methanotroph diversity. Sites with the greatest stability i

SUBMITTER: Levine UY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3176513 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature