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Microbiology

Resolving a methane mystery

Nature volume 407, pages 577–579 (2000)Cite this article

Large reservoirs of natural methane, constituting perhaps twice the amount of all known fossil-fuel stores, lie buried beneath the sea floor. Yet little of this vast methane reserve regularly escapes from oxygen-depleted (anoxic) marine sediments into the surrounding water column. Why? Microbes in marine sediments are thought to consume the methane that diffuses upwards, before it can escape into oxygenated waters. Yet no microorganism has yet been specifically identified that can make a living by oxidizing methane in the absence of oxygen. On page 623 of this issue, however, Boetius et al.1 provide a pictorial view of some microbial partners involved in this process. These include members of two of the three domains of life: methane-consuming archaea and sulphate-reducing bacteria.

We need a better understanding of the methane cycle for two main reasons. First, methane is an important energy source, representing a clean and potentially economic alternative fuel. Interest in methane has recently heightened with the discovery of enormous methane stores off continental margins. These vast reservoirs, buried deep within marine sediments, exist largely in the form of a crystalline, frozen mixture of methane and water known as methane hydrate2. Second, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas which, molecule for molecule, is about 25 times more potent than CO2 in its radiative effect3. This is especially pertinent now that the world faces the prospect of global warming. But it is also relevant to Earth's climatic history: in the past, periodic outgassing from sub-seafloor hydrates may have contributed to millennial-scale oscillation of methane levels in the atmosphere4.

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Figure 1: Methane and sulphate concentration profiles in anoxic marine sediments (after ref.5).

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  1. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, 95039, California, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

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DeLong, E. Resolving a methane mystery. Nature 407, 577–579 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35036677

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