Microbial methane cycling in sediments of Arctic thermokarst lagoons

Sizhong Yang^{1

2}, Sara E Anthony³, Maren Jenrich^{4

5}, Michiel H In 't Zandt^{6

7}, Jens Strauss⁴, Pier Paul Overduin⁴, Guido Grosse^{4

5}, Michael Angelopoulos⁴, Boris K Biskaborn⁸, Mikhail N Grigoriev⁹, Dirk Wagner^{1

5}, Christian Knoblauch^{10

11}, Andrea Jaeschke³, Janet Rethemeyer³, Jens Kallmeyer¹, Susanne Liebner^{1

12}

Affiliations

¹ GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Section Geomicrobiology, Potsdam, Germany.
² Cryosphere Research Station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
³ Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
⁴ Permafrost Research Section, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany.
⁵ Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
⁶ Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁷ Netherlands Earth System Science Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁸ Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems Section, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany.
⁹ Laboratory of General Geocryology, Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia.
¹⁰ Institute of Soil Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
¹¹ Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
¹² Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

PMID: 36811358
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16649

Microbial methane cycling in sediments of Arctic thermokarst lagoons

Sizhong Yang et al. Glob Chang Biol. 2023 May.

. 2023 May;29(10):2714-2731.

doi: 10.1111/gcb.16649. Epub 2023 Mar 13.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Section Geomicrobiology, Potsdam, Germany.
² Cryosphere Research Station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
³ Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
⁴ Permafrost Research Section, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany.
⁵ Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
⁶ Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁷ Netherlands Earth System Science Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁸ Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems Section, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany.
⁹ Laboratory of General Geocryology, Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia.
¹⁰ Institute of Soil Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
¹¹ Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
¹² Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

PMID: 36811358
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16649

Abstract

Thermokarst lagoons represent the transition state from a freshwater lacustrine to a marine environment, and receive little attention regarding their role for greenhouse gas production and release in Arctic permafrost landscapes. We studied the fate of methane (CH₄ ) in sediments of a thermokarst lagoon in comparison to two thermokarst lakes on the Bykovsky Peninsula in northeastern Siberia through the analysis of sediment CH₄ concentrations and isotopic signature, methane-cycling microbial taxa, sediment geochemistry, lipid biomarkers, and network analysis. We assessed how differences in geochemistry between thermokarst lakes and thermokarst lagoons, caused by the infiltration of sulfate-rich marine water, altered the microbial methane-cycling community. Anaerobic sulfate-reducing ANME-2a/2b methanotrophs dominated the sulfate-rich sediments of the lagoon despite its known seasonal alternation between brackish and freshwater inflow and low sulfate concentrations compared to the usual marine ANME habitat. Non-competitive methylotrophic methanogens dominated the methanogenic community of the lakes and the lagoon, independent of differences in porewater chemistry and depth. This potentially contributed to the high CH₄ concentrations observed in all sulfate-poor sediments. CH₄ concentrations in the freshwater-influenced sediments averaged 1.34 ± 0.98 μmol g^-1 , with highly depleted δ¹³ C-CH₄ values ranging from -89‰ to -70‰. In contrast, the sulfate-affected upper 300 cm of the lagoon exhibited low average CH₄ concentrations of 0.011 ± 0.005 μmol g^-1 with comparatively enriched δ¹³ C-CH₄ values of -54‰ to -37‰ pointing to substantial methane oxidation. Our study shows that lagoon formation specifically supports methane oxidizers and methane oxidation through changes in pore water chemistry, especially sulfate, while methanogens are similar to lake conditions.

Keywords: 13C; ANME; AOM; MOB; coastal permafrost; methanotrophs; methylotrophic methanogenesis; permafrost thaw; sulfate reduction; sulfate-methane transition zone.

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References

REFERENCES

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Microbial methane cycling in sediments of Arctic thermokarst lagoons

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Microbial methane cycling in sediments of Arctic thermokarst lagoons

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