| 1. |
- Kuhn, McKenzie A., et al.
(författare)
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Controls on Stable Methane Isotope Values in Northern Peatlands and Potential Shifts in Values Under Permafrost Thaw Scenarios
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2169-8953 .- 2169-8961. ; 129:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Northern peatlands are a globally significant source of methane (CH4), and emissions are projected to increase due to warming and permafrost loss. Understanding the microbial mechanisms behind patterns in CH4 production in peatlands will be key to predicting annual emissions changes, with stable carbon isotopes (δ13C-CH4) being a powerful tool for characterizing these drivers. Given that δ13C-CH4 is used in top-down atmospheric inversion models to partition sources, our ability to model CH4 production pathways and associated δ13C-CH4 values is critical. We sought to characterize the role of environmental conditions, including hydrologic and vegetation patterns associated with permafrost thaw, on δ13C-CH4 values from high-latitude peatlands. We measured porewater and emitted CH4 stable isotopes, pH, and vegetation composition from five boreal-Arctic peatlands. Porewater δ13C-CH4 was strongly associated with peatland type, with δ13C enriched values obtained from more minerotrophic fens (−61.2 ± 9.1‰) compared to permafrost-free bogs (−74.1 ± 9.4‰) and raised permafrost bogs (−81.6 ± 11.5‰). Variation in porewater δ13C-CH4 was best explained by sedge cover, CH4 concentration, and the interactive effect of peatland type and pH (r2 = 0.50, p < 0.001). Emitted δ13C-CH4 varied greatly but was positively correlated with porewater δ13C-CH4. We calculated a mixed atmospheric δ13C-CH4 value for northern peatlands of −65.3 ± 7‰ and show that this value is more sensitive to landscape drying than wetting under permafrost thaw scenarios. Our results suggest northern peatland δ13C-CH4 values are likely to shift in the future which has important implications for source partitioning in atmospheric inversion models.
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| 2. |
- Benjamin, Bolduc, et al.
(författare)
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The IsoGenie database : an interdisciplinary data management solution for ecosystems biology and environmental research
- 2020
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Ingår i: PeerJ. - : PeerJ. - 2167-8359. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern microbial and ecosystem sciences require diverse interdisciplinary teams that are often challenged in “speaking” to one another due to different languages and data product types. Here we introduce the IsoGenie Database (IsoGenieDB; https://isogenie-db.asc.ohio-state.edu/), a de novo developed data management and exploration platform, as a solution to this challenge of accurately representing and integrating heterogenous environmental and microbial data across ecosystem scales. The IsoGenieDB is a public and private data infrastructure designed to store and query data generated by the IsoGenie Project, a ~10 year DOE-funded project focused on discovering ecosystem climate feedbacks in a thawing permafrost landscape. The IsoGenieDB provides (i) a platform for IsoGenie Project members to explore the project’s interdisciplinary datasets across scales through the inherent relationships among data entities, (ii) a framework to consolidate and harmonize the datasets needed by the team’s modelers, and (iii) a public venue that leverages the same spatially explicit, disciplinarily integrated data structure to share published datasets. The IsoGenieDB is also being expanded to cover the NASA-funded Archaea to Atmosphere (A2A) project, which scales the findings of IsoGenie to a broader suite of Arctic peatlands, via the umbrella A2A Database (A2A-DB). The IsoGenieDB’s expandability and flexible architecture allow it to serve as an example ecosystems database.
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| 3. |
- Ellenbogen, Jared B., et al.
(författare)
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Methylotrophy in the Mire : direct and indirect routes for methane production in thawing permafrost
- 2024
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Ingår i: mSystems. - 2379-5077. ; 9:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While wetlands are major sources of biogenic methane (CH4), our understanding of resident microbial metabolism is incomplete, which compromises the prediction of CH4 emissions under ongoing climate change. Here, we employed genome-resolved multi-omics to expand our understanding of methanogenesis in the thawing permafrost peatland of Stordalen Mire in Arctic Sweden. In quadrupling the genomic representation of the site’s methanogens and examining their encoded metabolism, we revealed that nearly 20% of the metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) encoded the potential for methylotrophic methanogenesis. Further, 27% of the transcriptionally active methanogens expressed methylotrophic genes; for Methanosarcinales and Methanobacteriales MAGs, these data indicated the use of methylated oxygen compounds (e.g., methanol), while for Methanomassiliicoccales, they primarily implicated methyl sulfides and methylamines. In addition to methanogenic methylotrophy, >1,700 bacterial MAGs across 19 phyla encoded anaerobic methylotrophic potential, with expression across 12 phyla. Metabolomic analyses revealed the presence of diverse methylated compounds in the Mire, including some known methylotrophic substrates. Active methylotrophy was observed across all stages of a permafrost thaw gradient in Stordalen, with the most frozen non-methanogenic palsa found to host bacterial methylotrophy and the partially thawed bog and fully thawed fen seen to house both methanogenic and bacterial methylotrophic activities. Methanogenesis across increasing permafrost thaw is thus revised from the sole dominance of hydrogenotrophic production and the appearance of acetoclastic at full thaw to consider the co-occurrence of methylotrophy throughout. Collectively, these findings indicate that methanogenic and bacterial methylotrophy may be an important and previously underappreciated component of carbon cycling and emissions in these rapidly changing wetland habitats.
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| 4. |
- Emerson, Joanne B., et al.
(författare)
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Host-linked soil viral ecology along a permafrost thaw gradient
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Microbiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2058-5276. ; 3:8, s. 870-880
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change threatens to release abundant carbon that is sequestered at high latitudes, but the constraints on microbial metabolisms that mediate the release of methane and carbon dioxide are poorly understood(1-7). The role of viruses, which are known to affect microbial dynamics, metabolism and biogeochemistry in the oceans(8-10), remains largely unexplored in soil. Here, we aimed to investigate how viruses influence microbial ecology and carbon metabolism in peatland soils along a permafrost thaw gradient in Sweden. We recovered 1,907 viral populations (genomes and large genome fragments) from 197 bulk soil and size-fractionated metagenomes, 58% of which were detected in metatranscriptomes and presumed to be active. In silico predictions linked 35% of the viruses to microbial host populations, highlighting likely viral predators of key carbon-cycling microorganisms, including methanogens and methanotrophs. Lineage-specific virus/host ratios varied, suggesting that viral infection dynamics may differentially impact microbial responses to a changing climate. Virus-encoded glycoside hydrolases, including an endomannanase with confirmed functional activity, indicated that viruses influence complex carbon degradation and that viral abundances were significant predictors of methane dynamics. These findings suggest that viruses may impact ecosystem function in climate-critical, terrestrial habitats and identify multiple potential viral contributions to soil carbon cycling.
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| 5. |
- Fofana, Aminata, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping substrate use across a permafrost thaw gradient
- 2022
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Ingår i: Soil Biology and Biochemistry. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0038-0717 .- 1879-3428. ; 175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Permafrost thaw in northern peatlands is likely to create a positive feedback to climate change, as microbes transform soil carbon (C) into carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4). While the microbiome's encoded C-processing potential changes with thaw, the impact on substrate utilization and gas emissions is less well characterized. We therefore examined microbial C-cycling dynamics from a partially thawed Sphagnum-dominated bog to a fully thawed sedge-dominated fen in Stordalen Mire (68.35°N, 19.05°E), Sweden. We profiled C substrate utilization diversity and extent by Biolog Ecoplates™, then tested substrate-specific hypotheses by targeted additions (of glucose, the short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) acetate and butyrate, and the organic acids galacturonic acid and p-hydroxybenzoic acid, all at field-relevant concentrations) under anaerobic conditions at 15 °C. In parallel we characterized microbiomes (via 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction) and C gas emissions. The fen exhibited a higher substrate use diversity and faster rate of overall substrate utilization than in the bog, based on Biolog Ecoplate™ incubations. Simple glucose additions (akin to a positive control) to peat microcosms fueled fermentation as expected (reflected in enriched fermenter lineages, their inferred metabolisms, and CO2 production), but also showed potential priming of anaerobic phenol degradation in the bog. Addition of SCFAs to bog and fen produced the least change in lineages and in CO2, and modest suppression of CH4 primarily in the fen, attributed to inhibition. Addition of both organic acids greatly increased the CO2:CH4 ratio in the deep peats but had distinct individual gas dynamics and impacts on microbiota. Both organic acids appeared to act as both C source and as a microbial inhibitor, with galacturonic acid also likely playing a role in electron transfer or acceptance. Collectively, these results support the importance of aboveground-belowground linkages - and in particular the role of Sphagnum spp.- in supplying substrates and inhibitors that drive microbiome assembly and C processing in these dynamically changing systems. In addition, they highlight an important temporal dynamic: responses on the short time scale of incubations (which would reflect transition conditions in the field) differ from those evident at the longer scales of habitat transition, in ways consequential to C gas emissions. In the short term, substrate addition response reflected microbiome legacy (e.g., bog communities were slower to process C and better tolerated inhibitors than fen communities) but led to little overall increase in C gas production (and a high skew to CO2). At the longer time scale of bog and fen thaw stages (which are used to represent these systems in models) the concomitant shifts in plants, hydrology and microbiota attenuate microbiome legacy impacts on substrate processing and C gas emissions over time. As habitat transition areas expand under accelerating change, we hypothesize an increased role of microbiome legacy in the landscape overall, leading to a lag in the increase of CH4 emissions expected from fen expansion.
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| 6. |
- Hodgkins, Suzanne B., et al.
(författare)
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Changes in peat chemistry associated with permafrost thaw increase greenhouse gas production
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 111:16, s. 5819-5824
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Carbon release due to permafrost thaw represents a potentially major positive climate change feedback. The magnitude of carbon loss and the proportion lost as methane (CH4) vs. carbon dioxide (CO2) depend on factors including temperature, mobilization of previously frozen carbon, hydrology, and changes in organic matter chemistry associated with environmental responses to thaw. While the first three of these effects are relatively well understood, the effect of organic matter chemistry remains largely un-studied. To address this gap, we examined the biogeochemistry of peat and dissolved organic matter (DOM) along a similar to 40-y permafrost thaw progression from recently- to fully thawed sites in Stordalen Mire (68.35 degrees N, 19.05 degrees E), a thawing peat plateau in northern Sweden. Thaw-induced subsidence and the resulting inundation along this progression led to succession in vegetation types accompanied by an evolution in organic matter chemistry. Peat C/N ratios decreased whereas humification rates increased, and DOM shifted toward lower molecular weight compounds with lower aromaticity, lower organic oxygen content, and more abundant microbially produced compounds. Corresponding changes in decomposition along this gradient included increasing CH4 and CO2 production potentials, higher relative CH4/CO2 ratios, and a shift in CH4 production pathway from CO2 reduction to acetate cleavage. These results imply that subsidence and thermokarst-associated increases in organic matter lability cause shifts in biogeochemical processes toward faster decomposition with an increasing proportion of carbon released as CH4. This impact of permafrost thaw on organic matter chemistry could intensify the predicted climate feedbacks of increasing temperatures, permafrost carbon mobilization, and hydrologic changes.
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| 7. |
- Hodgkins, Suzanne B., et al.
(författare)
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Elemental composition and optical properties reveal changes in dissolved organic matter along a permafrost thaw chronosequence in a subarctic peatland
- 2016
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Ingår i: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7037 .- 1872-9533. ; 187, s. 123-140
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The fate of carbon stored in permafrost-zone peatlands represents a significant uncertainty in global climate modeling. Given that the breakdown of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is often a major pathway for decomposition in peatlands, knowledge of DOM reactivity under different permafrost regimes is critical for determining future climate feedbacks. To explore the effects of permafrost thaw and resultant plant succession on DOM reactivity, we used a combination of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), UV/Vis absorbance, and excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (EEMS) to examine the DOM elemental composition and optical properties of 27 pore water samples gathered from various sites along a permafrost thaw sequence in Stordalen Mire, a thawing subarctic peatland in northern Sweden. The presence of dense Sphagnum moss, a feature that is dominant in the intermediate thaw stages, appeared to be the main driver of variation in DOM elemental composition and optical properties at Stordalen. Specifically, DOM from sites with Sphagnum had greater aromaticity, higher average molecular weights, and greater O/C, consistent with a higher abundance of phenolic compounds that likely inhibit decomposition. These compounds are released by Sphagnum and may accumulate due to inhibition of phenol oxidase activity by the acidic pH at these sites. In contrast, sites without Sphagnum, specifically fully-thawed rich fens, had more saturated, more reduced compounds, which were high in N and S. Optical properties at rich fens indicated the presence of microbially-derived DOM, consistent with the higher decomposition rates previously measured at these sites. These results indicate that Sphagnum acts as an inhibitor of rapid decomposition and CH4 release in thawing subarctic peatlands, consistent with lower rates of CO2 and CH4 production previously observed at these sites. However, this inhibitory effect may disappear if Sphagnum-dominated bogs transition to more waterlogged rich fens that contain very little to no living Sphagnum. Release of this inhibition allows for higher levels of microbial activity and potentially greater CH4 release, as has been observed in these fen sites.
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| 8. |
- Hodgkins, Suzanne B., et al.
(författare)
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Soil incubations reproduce field methane dynamics in a subarctic wetland
- 2015
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Ingår i: Biogeochemistry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0168-2563 .- 1573-515X. ; 126:1-2, s. 241-249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major challenge in peatland carbon cycle modeling is the estimation of subsurface methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) production and consumption rates and pathways. The most common methods for modeling these processes are soil incubations and stable isotope modeling, both of which may involve departures from field conditions. To explore the impacts of these departures, we measured CH4/CO2 concentration ratios and C-13 fractionation factors (alpha(C), indicating CH4 production pathways) in field pore water from a thawing subarctic peatland, and compared these values to those observed in incubations of corresponding peat samples. Incubation CH4/CO2 production ratios were significantly and positively correlated with observed field CH4/CO2 concentration ratios, though observed field ratios were similar to 20 % of those in incubations due to CH4's lower solubility in pore water. After correcting the field ratios for CH4 loss with an isotope mass balance model, the incubation CH4/CO2 ratios and alpha(C) were both significantly positively correlated with field ratios and alpha(C) (respectively), both with slopes indistinguishable from 1. Although CH4/CO2 ratios and alpha(C) were slightly higher in the incubations, these shifts were consistent along the thaw progression, indicating that ex situ incubations can replicate trends in in situ CH4 production.
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| 9. |
- Nugent, Kelly A., et al.
(författare)
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Cutover Peat Limits Methane Production Causing Low Emission at a Restored Peatland
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. - 2169-8953. ; 126:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Peatland degradation due to human activities is contributing to rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Restoring the carbon (C) sink function in degraded peatlands and preventing further stored C losses is a key climate mitigation strategy, given the global scale of peatland disturbance. Active restoration involving a combination of rewetting and vegetation reestablishment at a post-extraction peatland in Canada has been shown to successfully re-establish net CO2 uptake rates similar to undisturbed peatlands within a decade or two. However, lower than expected CH4 emissions suggest recovery of belowground C cycling processes may lag behind the recovery of the surface net flux. Using closed chamber measurements over a warm season, we determined that restored Sphagnum, which covers two thirds of the site, was a null source of CH4. Emissions from the restored site were primarily attributed to vascular plant substrate inputs, measured as acetate, and plant-mediated transport. The C isotopic fractionation factor for CH4 and CO2 in the pore water from the restored former peat field suggested reduced hydrogenotrophic CH4 production deeper in the cutover peat profile (0.8 m depth). In contrast, isotopic fractionation in the former drainage ditches showed a balance of acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis deeper in the profile, indicative of some bulk peat C turnover. This study suggests that the legacy of substrate quality in the cutover peat can reduce the climate warming impact of newly restored peatlands through a reduction in CH4 production and thus emission.
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| 10. |
- Singleton, Caitlin M., et al.
(författare)
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Methanotrophy across a natural permafrost thaw environment
- 2018
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Ingår i: The ISME Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1751-7362 .- 1751-7370. ; 12:10, s. 2544-2558
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The fate of carbon sequestered in permafrost is a key concern for future global warming as this large carbon stock is rapidly becoming a net methane source due to widespread thaw. Methane release from permafrost is moderated by methanotrophs, which oxidise 20-60% of this methane before emission to the atmosphere. Despite the importance of methanotrophs to carbon cycling, these microorganisms are under-characterised and have not been studied across a natural permafrost thaw gradient. Here, we examine methanotroph communities from the active layer of a permafrost thaw gradient in Stordalen Mire (Abisko, Sweden) spanning three years, analysing 188 metagenomes and 24 metatranscriptomes paired with in situ biogeochemical data. Methanotroph community composition and activity varied significantly as thaw progressed from intact permafrost palsa, to partially thawed bog and fully thawed fen. Thirteen methanotroph population genomes were recovered, including two novel genomes belonging to the uncultivated upland soil cluster alpha (USCa) group and a novel potentially methanotrophic Hyphomicrobiaceae. Combined analysis of porewater delta C-13-CH 4 isotopes and methanotroph abundances showed methane oxidation was greatest below the oxic-anoxic interface in the bog. These results detail the direct effect of thaw on autochthonous methanotroph communities, and their consequent changes in population structure, activity and methane moderation potential.
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| 11. |
- Varner, Ruth K., et al.
(författare)
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Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
- 2022
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Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions. Series A. - : The Royal Society. - 1364-503X .- 1471-2962. ; 380:2215
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Permafrost thaw increases active layer thickness, changes landscape hydrology and influences vegetation species composition. These changes alter belowground microbial and geochemical processes, affecting production, consumption and net emission rates of climate forcing trace gases. Net carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes determine the radiative forcing contribution from these climate-sensitive ecosystems. Permafrost peatlands may be a mosaic of dry frozen hummocks, semi-thawed or perched sphagnum dominated areas, wet permafrost-free sedge dominated sites and open water ponds. We revisited estimates of climate forcing made for 1970 and 2000 for Stordalen Mire in northern Sweden and found the trend of increasing forcing continued into 2014. The Mire continued to transition from dry permafrost to sedge and open water areas, increasing by 100% and 35%, respectively, over the 45-year period, causing the net radiative forcing of Stordalen Mire to shift from negative to positive. This trend is driven by transitioning vegetation community composition, improved estimates of annual CO2 and CH4 exchange and a 22% increase in the IPCC's 100-year global warming potential (GWP_100) value for CH4. These results indicate that discontinuous permafrost ecosystems, while still remaining a net overall sink of C, can become a positive feedback to climate change on decadal timescales.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)’.
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| 12. |
- Woodcroft, Ben J., et al.
(författare)
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Genome-centric view of carbon processing in thawing permafrost
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 560:7716, s. 49-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As global temperatures rise, large amounts of carbon sequestered in permafrost are becoming available for microbial degradation. Accurate prediction of carbon gas emissions from thawing permafrost is limited by our understanding of these microbial communities. Here we use metagenomic sequencing of 214 samples from a permafrost thaw gradient to recover 1,529 metagenome-assembled genomes, including many from phyla with poor genomic representation. These genomes reflect the diversity of this complex ecosystem, with genus-level representatives for more than sixty per cent of the community. Meta-omic analysis revealed key populations involved in the degradation of organic matter, including bacteria whose genomes encode a previously undescribed fungal pathway for xylose degradation. Microbial and geochemical data highlight lineages that correlate with the production of greenhouse gases and indicate novel syntrophic relationships. Our findings link changing biogeochemistry to specific microbial lineages involved in carbon processing, and provide key information for predicting the effects of climate change on permafrost systems.
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