IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-022-35673-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Methane emissions offset atmospheric carbon dioxide uptake in coastal macroalgae, mixed vegetation and sediment ecosystems

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Roth

    (Stockholm University
    University of Helsinki)

  • Elias Broman

    (Stockholm University
    Stockholm University)

  • Xiaole Sun

    (Stockholm University
    Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Stefano Bonaglia

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Francisco Nascimento

    (Stockholm University
    Stockholm University)

  • John Prytherch

    (Stockholm University)

  • Volker Brüchert

    (Stockholm University
    Stockholm University)

  • Maysoon Lundevall Zara

    (Stockholm University)

  • Märta Brunberg

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Marc C. Geibel

    (Stockholm University)

  • Christoph Humborg

    (Stockholm University
    University of Helsinki)

  • Alf Norkko

    (Stockholm University
    University of Helsinki)

Abstract

Coastal ecosystems can efficiently remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and are thus promoted for nature-based climate change mitigation. Natural methane (CH4) emissions from these ecosystems may counterbalance atmospheric CO2 uptake. Still, knowledge of mechanisms sustaining such CH4 emissions and their contribution to net radiative forcing remains scarce for globally prevalent macroalgae, mixed vegetation, and surrounding depositional sediment habitats. Here we show that these habitats emit CH4 in the range of 0.1 – 2.9 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 to the atmosphere, revealing in situ CH4 emissions from macroalgae that were sustained by divergent methanogenic archaea in anoxic microsites. Over an annual cycle, CO2-equivalent CH4 emissions offset 28 and 35% of the carbon sink capacity attributed to atmospheric CO2 uptake in the macroalgae and mixed vegetation habitats, respectively, and augment net CO2 release of unvegetated sediments by 57%. Accounting for CH4 alongside CO2 sea-air fluxes and identifying the mechanisms controlling these emissions is crucial to constrain the potential of coastal ecosystems as net atmospheric carbon sinks and develop informed climate mitigation strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Roth & Elias Broman & Xiaole Sun & Stefano Bonaglia & Francisco Nascimento & John Prytherch & Volker Brüchert & Maysoon Lundevall Zara & Märta Brunberg & Marc C. Geibel & Christoph Humborg & A, 2023. "Methane emissions offset atmospheric carbon dioxide uptake in coastal macroalgae, mixed vegetation and sediment ecosystems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35673-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35673-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35673-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-35673-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric A. Davidson & Ivan A. Janssens, 2006. "Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 440(7081), pages 165-173, March.
    2. Gabriel Yvon-Durocher & Andrew P. Allen & David Bastviken & Ralf Conrad & Cristian Gudasz & Annick St-Pierre & Nguyen Thanh-Duc & Paul A. del Giorgio, 2014. "Methane fluxes show consistent temperature dependence across microbial to ecosystem scales," Nature, Nature, vol. 507(7493), pages 488-491, March.
    3. Thomas Weber & Nicola A. Wiseman & Annette Kock, 2019. "Global ocean methane emissions dominated by shallow coastal waters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Linlin Shi & Linlin Dong & Jun Zhang & Jing Huang & Yuan Shen & Yueyue Tao & Haihou Wang & Changying Lu, 2024. "Rotary Tillage Plus Mechanical Transplanting Practices Increased Rice Yields with Lower CH 4 Emission in a Single Cropping Rice System," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Shufen Pang & Mazlinawati Abdul Majid & Hadinnapola Appuhamilage Chintha Crishanthi Perera & Mohammad Saydul Islam Sarkar & Jia Ning & Weikang Zhai & Ran Guo & Yuncheng Deng & Haiwen Zhang, 2024. "A Systematic Review and Global Trends on Blue Carbon and Sustainable Development: A Bibliometric Study from 2012 to 2023," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-31, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md. Zonayet & Alok Kumar Paul & Md. Faisal-E-Alam & Khalid Syfullah & Rui Alexandre Castanho & Daniel Meyer, 2023. "Impact of Biochar as a Soil Conditioner to Improve the Soil Properties of Saline Soil and Productivity of Tomato," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Raitis Normunds Meļņiks & Arta Bārdule & Aldis Butlers & Jordane Champion & Santa Kalēja & Ilona Skranda & Guna Petaja & Andis Lazdiņš, 2023. "Carbon Losses from Topsoil in Abandoned Peat Extraction Sites Due to Ground Subsidence and Erosion," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Xiangwen Wu & Shuying Zang & Dalong Ma & Jianhua Ren & Qiang Chen & Xingfeng Dong, 2019. "Emissions of CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O Fluxes from Forest Soil in Permafrost Region of Daxing’an Mountains, Northeast China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-14, August.
    4. Husnain Husnain & I. Wigena & Ai Dariah & Setiari Marwanto & Prihasto Setyanto & Fahmuddin Agus, 2014. "CO 2 emissions from tropical drained peat in Sumatra, Indonesia," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 845-862, August.
    5. Nikolay Gorbach & Viktor Startsev & Anton Mazur & Evgeniy Milanovskiy & Anatoly Prokushkin & Alexey Dymov, 2022. "Simulation of Smoldering Combustion of Organic Horizons at Pine and Spruce Boreal Forests with Lab-Heating Experiments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    6. Asik Dutta & Ranjan Bhattacharyya & Raimundo Jiménez-Ballesta & Abir Dey & Namita Das Saha & Sarvendra Kumar & Chaitanya Prasad Nath & Ved Prakash & Surendra Singh Jatav & Abhik Patra, 2023. "Conventional and Zero Tillage with Residue Management in Rice–Wheat System in the Indo-Gangetic Plains: Impact on Thermal Sensitivity of Soil Organic Carbon Respiration and Enzyme Activity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Franco-Luesma, Samuel & Álvaro-Fuentes, Jorge & Plaza-Bonilla, Daniel & Arrúe, José Luis & Cantero-Martínez, Carlos & Cavero, José, 2019. "Influence of irrigation time and frequency on greenhouse gas emissions in a solid-set sprinkler-irrigated maize under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 303-311.
    8. Coletti, Janaine Z. & Hinz, Christoph & Vogwill, Ryan & Hipsey, Matthew R., 2013. "Hydrological controls on carbon metabolism in wetlands," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 249(C), pages 3-18.
    9. Wei Wang & Wenjing Zeng & Weile Chen & Hui Zeng & Jingyun Fang, 2013. "Soil Respiration and Organic Carbon Dynamics with Grassland Conversions to Woodlands in Temperate China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-10, August.
    10. Guoai Li & Xuxu Chai & Zheng Shi & Honghua Ruan, 2023. "Interactive Effects Determine Radiocarbon Abundance in Soil Fractions of Global Biomes," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Qiang Li & Maofang Gao & Zhao-Liang Li, 2022. "Soil Organic Carbon Storage in Australian Wheat Cropping Systems in Response to Climate Change from 1990 to 2060," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-15, September.
    12. Jinshi Jian & Vanessa Bailey & Kalyn Dorheim & Alexandra G. Konings & Dalei Hao & Alexey N. Shiklomanov & Abigail Snyder & Meredith Steele & Munemasa Teramoto & Rodrigo Vargas & Ben Bond-Lamberty, 2022. "Historically inconsistent productivity and respiration fluxes in the global terrestrial carbon cycle," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    13. Zhang, Fan & Li, Changsheng & Wang, Zheng & Glidden, Stanley & Grogan, Danielle S. & Li, Xuxiang & Cheng, Yan & Frolking, Steve, 2015. "Modeling impacts of management on farmland soil carbon dynamics along a climate gradient in Northwest China during 1981–2000," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 312(C), pages 1-10.
    14. Miquelajauregui, Yosune & Cumming, Steven G. & Gauthier, Sylvie, 2019. "Short-term responses of boreal carbon stocks to climate change: A simulation study of black spruce forests," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 409(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Jinquan Li & Junmin Pei & Changming Fang & Bo Li & Ming Nie, 2024. "Drought may exacerbate dryland soil inorganic carbon loss under warming climate conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Xue Chen & Haibo Hu & Qi Wang & Xia Wang & Bing Ma, 2024. "Exploring the Factors Affecting Terrestrial Soil Respiration in Global Warming Manipulation Experiments Based on Meta-Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, September.
    17. Mukherjee, Joyita & Ray, Santanu & Ghosh, Phani Bhusan, 2013. "A system dynamic modeling of carbon cycle from mangrove litter to the adjacent Hooghly estuary, India," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 185-195.
    18. Coilín ÓhAiseadha & Gerré Quinn & Ronan Connolly & Michael Connolly & Willie Soon, 2020. "Energy and Climate Policy—An Evaluation of Global Climate Change Expenditure 2011–2018," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-49, September.
    19. Shuai Ren & Tao Wang & Bertrand Guenet & Dan Liu & Yingfang Cao & Jinzhi Ding & Pete Smith & Shilong Piao, 2024. "Projected soil carbon loss with warming in constrained Earth system models," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. Carlo Bravo & Rosanna Toniolo & Marco Contin & Maria De Nobili, 2021. "Electrochemical and Structural Modifications of Humic Acids in Aerobically and Anaerobically Incubated Peat," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-13, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35673-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.