Quantification of methane sources and sinks in a plant-soil system

Kurzbezeichnung

Laufzeit

Projektverantwortlich

Prof. Dr. Katharina Lenhart (Lek)

Prof. Dr. Katharina Lenhart

Professorin für Botanik, Limnologie und Ökotoxikologie

Arbeitsgebiete

Plant-Soil-Atmosphere interactions Global Change Research Production and consumption of trace gases (CH₄, N₂O, CO₂) in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems Plant Ecology Soil Science Applied Microbiology Atmospheric Chemistry Stable isotopes (¹³C, ¹⁵N)

Lehre

Allgemeine und spezielle Botanik, Limnologie, Ökotoxikologie

Kontakt

Prof. Dr. Katharina Lenhart (Lek)

Fachbereich 1

Gebäude 2 Raum 128

T.+49 6721 409 359

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Professorin für Botanik, Limnologie und Ökotoxikologie

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Kurzbeschreibung des Projekts

In recent years methane (CH₄) production under oxic conditions and without the help of methanogenic Archaea has been shown for plants, fungi, and soil. But the scientific findings were largely obtained under sterile conditions. Likely, CH₄ production rates under natural conditions (including e.g. animal feeding, changing oxygen and moisture conditions, interaction with other organisms) will differ from the emission rates obtained from sterile cultures. With this project we want to investigate for the first time the CH₄ production and simultaneous microbial consumption in an aerated plant-soil system including fungi and microbes under controlled laboratory conditions.

The first goal is to develop a closed-chamber modular construction system where specific components of the plant-soil system and their interaction can be investigated with regard to CH₄ production. Primarily, the interaction of plants and associated fungi will be explored. Separation of CH₄ sources in soil will be achieved by using selective inhibitors. We address the questions how the presence of plants affects soil endogenic CH₄ production and will use stable isotope labeling to trace the conversion of photosynthetically fixed CO₂ to CH₄. Moreover, we are interested in CH₄ fluxes within the system. To test the existence of a possible connection between endogenic CH₄ production and CH₄ consumption we will simultaneously quantify CH₄ production and consumption. A combination of isotope labelling techniques with molecular methods will be used to trace plant-derived CH₄ within methanotrophic bacteria. The response of plant-derived CH₄ emissions after caterpillar feeding and vermin infestation will be tested and temperature-induced changes in CH₄ emissions will be related to metabolic activity.

The aim of this research project is to improve our understanding of CH₄ fluxes in the plant-soil system via the quantification of CH₄ production and consumption. Furthermore, our results might contribute to explain the variability of CH₄ consumption in terrestrial ecosystems and may improve predictions of climate induced changes of ecosystem CH₄ fluxes.