Moisture, temperature and light modualte methane oxidation from dry riverbeds - A mesocosms experiment

DOI

Despite advancements in understanding methane dynamics in dry inland waters, the potential of dry riverbeds to act as methane sinks remains unclear. Depending on moisture soils can act as sinks or sources of methane, and since dry riverbeds can be considered early-stage soils, it can be expected that drivers and dynamics are comparable. In this study, we examined how three key drivers of methane oxidation in soils also modulate methane oxidation in dry riverbed sediments: gravimetric water content (GWC, as proxy of moisture), temperature, and light quality and intensity. We measured potential methane oxidation (PMO) across a gradient of GWC, temperature (10, 20 and 30ºC), and under different light conditions (green and growth light). Our findings demonstrate that dry streambed sediments have the capacity to oxidize methane, with GWC being the primary driver. PMO followed a monotonic function, peaking around 5% GWC, while temperature and light played lesser yet significant role. PMO was lower at 10ºC and highest at temperatures above 20ºC. Notably, light reduced PMO by 3-5 times compared to dark conditions, with green light promoting PMO 0.3 times more than growth. First, our results highlights the potential of dry riverbeds to function as methane sinks in the atmosphere. And second, suggest that GWC is the major determinant of the potential to oxidize methane from dry riverbeds, and that light and temperature will modulate its daily and seasonal variations, as well as between reach variability associated to canopy cover.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.973627
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.973627
Provenance
Creator Mendoza-Lera, Clara ORCID logo; Löwer, Jonas; Rovelli, Lorenzo ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2024
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; Data access is restricted (moratorium, sensitive data, license constraints); https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess false
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 688 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (8.188 LON, 49.203 LAT)