UC Berkeley researchers tweaked a key enzyme involved in microbial methane production to understand the unique fingerprints of different environments on Earth that generate the greenhouse gas.
UC Berkeley researchers tweaked a key enzyme involved in microbial methane production to understand the unique fingerprints of different environments on Earth that generate the greenhouse gas.
Roughly two-thirds of all emissions of atmospheric methane — a highly potent greenhouse gas that is warming planet Earth — come from microbes that live in oxygen-free environments like wetlands, rice fields, landfills and the guts of cows.
Tracking atmospheric methane to its specific sources and quantifying their importance remains a challenge, however. Scientists are pretty good at tracing the sources of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, to focus on mitigating these emissions. But to trace methane’s origins, scientists often have to measure the isotopic composition of methane’s component atoms, carbon and hydrogen, to use as a fingerprint of various environmental sources.
A new paper by researchers at the UC Berkeley, reveals how the activity of one of the main microbial enzymes involved in producing methane affects this isotope composition and complicates efforts to pinpoint environmental sources. The finding could change how scientists calculate the contributions of different environmental sources to Earth’s total methane budget and lead to a more accurate picture of where exactly atmospheric methane is coming from.
Read More: University of California - Berkeley
Image: An electron microscope image of single-celled methanogens, members of the archaea domain. They are ubiquitous in oxygen-free environments, turning simple foods into methane, a potent greenhouse gas. (Credit: Alienor Baskevitch/UC Berkeley)
