Potential Effects of Methane Metabolic Microbial Communities on the Glacial Methane Budget in the Northwestern Tibetan Plateau

Yuchan Guo () and Shuhong Zhang
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Yuchan Guo: School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Shuhong Zhang: College of Biology and Food, Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu 476000, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: With global warming, the dramatic retreat of glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) might accelerate release of stored methane (CH 4 ) into the atmosphere; thus, this region might become a new source of CH 4 . CH 4 -metabolic microbial communities can produce or consume CH 4 in the environment, which is critical for evaluating the CH 4 budget of glaciers. However, studies on the influence of CH 4 -metabolic microbial communities on the CH 4 budget during glacier retreat in the TP remain scarce. In this work, ice samples were collected at the terminus of the Guliya Ice Cap in the northwestern TP. The community composition of CH 4 -metabolic microorganisms, including methanogens and methanotrophs, was determined using genomic analysis, and the metabolic rates of the two microorganisms were further estimated. The abundance of methanotrophs in Guliya was one order of magnitude higher than that of methanogens. The CH 4 consumption flux by the combined action of the two microorganisms was ca. 1.42 × 10 3 pmol·mL −1 ·d −1 , suggesting that CH 4 metabolic microbial communities in the glacier might be an important CH 4 sink, and can reduce subglacial CH 4 emission during glacier retreat. This is important for predicting the CH 4 budget in glaciers on the TP and corresponding climate impacts during glacier retreat.

Keywords: methane budget; Tibetan Plateau; glacier terminus; methanogen; methanotroph (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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