Concerns raised over global warming caused by increases in CO
2, CH
4 and other greenhouse gases have become more urgent. The contribution of anthropogenic releases of CO
2 and CH
4 to the greenhouse effect is estimated at 49% and 17% respectively. However, compared with CO
2, the potential greenhouse warming effect is at as much as 32 times greater for CH
4, which is increasing at a rate estimated at 1.1% per year. Most of this may originate from biological resources. According to a report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in June, 1990, 45% of the methane emissions may originate in paddy fields, lakes, wetlands and coastal zones.
In 1960, Takai showed that reductive production of CH
4 under waterlogged conditions occurred through a series of successive steps beginning with aerobic oxygen respiration, via nitrate respiration then progressing to manganese, iron and sulfate reducing reactions and finally to methane fermentation. This suggests that sulfate reducing reactions may be the predominate methane forming reaction in the coastal zone where the sulfate ions from sea or brackish waters are abundant.
Therefore, this study was designed to clarify the interaction between sulfate reducing bacteria and methane producing bacteria, and to identify the sources and mechanisms responsible for the emission of methane into the atmosphere.
Soil samples were waterlogged with: 1) sea water, 2) diluted sea water and 3) deionized water and incubated at 30°C. After 72 days their respective pH,
Eh, sulfide and methane concentrations were determined.
In brief, the amount of sulfide produced at each waterlogged plot was in the following decreasing order: 100% sea water plot>50% sea water and 50% freshwater plot>25% sea water and 75% freshwater>100% fresh (deionized) water plot. The decreasing order coincided not only with the decreasing order for the amount of sulfate ion present in the waterlogging solution but also with the increasing order for the amount of methane produced after incubation for 72 days. The result shows that the predominance of sulfate reducing reaction may suppress methane forming reactions in brackish water zones. Chemical analyses also showed that the concentration of cations such as K
+ and Ca
2+ in the freshwater decreased when it was used to dilute the sea water; however, an equivalent effect for sulfate ion was not observed.
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