Abstract
Paddy field methanogenic archaea are responsible for methane (CH4) production and contribute significantly to climate change. The information regarding the spatial variations in the abundance, the diversity and the composition of such ecologically important microbes, however, is quite limited at large scale. In this investigation, we studied the abundance, alpha diversity and geographical distribution of methanogenic archaeal communities in nine representative paddy sites, along a large latitudinal gradient in China, using pyrosequencing and real-time quantitative PCR. It is found that all paddy soils harbor constant methanogenic archaeal constituents, which is dominated by family Methanocellaceae (37.3%), Methanobacteriaceae (22.1%), Methanosaetaceae (17.2%), and Methanosarcinaceae (9.8%). Methanogenic archaeal abundance is primarily influenced by soil C (R = 0.612, P = 0.001) and N (R = 0.673, P = 0.001) contents, as well as alpha diversity by soil pH (PD: R = -0.552, P = 0.006; Chao1: R = -0.615, P = 0.002). Further exploration revealed that both spatial distance (R = 0.3469, P = 0.001, partial mental test) and soil chemical variables mainly about soil C and N (R = 0.2847, P = 0.001) are the two major factors affecting methanogenic archaeal community composition distribution in paddy soils. This finding will allow us to develop a better picture of the biogeographic ranges of these ecologically important microbes and get deeper insights into their ecology.
Highlights
Rice is the world’s most important agronomic plant, with nearly 150 million ha under cultivation globally (Roger, 1996)
We observed that pH is negatively correlated with the phylogenetic diversity (PD) and Chao1 diversity indices of paddy methanogenic archaea, as well as the abundance of Methanosarcinaceae (Table 3). Both Spatial Distance and Soil Chemical Variables Play Important Roles in Driving Methanogenic Archaeal Community Composition. We found that both spatial distance and soil chemical variables, mainly focusing on soil C and N significantly contribute to the variation of paddy methanogenic archaeal community composition
We analyzed nine representative paddy soil samples in China and revealed that they harbor a phylogenetically diverse and quantitatively abundant methanogenic archaeal community, which is dominated by family Methanocellaceae, Methanobacteriaceae, Methanosaetaceae, and Methanosarcinaceae
Summary
Rice is the world’s most important agronomic plant, with nearly 150 million ha under cultivation globally (Roger, 1996). More than half of the world’s rice grows in paddy fields under flooded (or anoxic) conditions. Paddy fields are one of major anthropogenic sources for atmospheric methane (CH4). IPCC (2013) reported 33–40 Tg CH4 year−1 emission from paddy fields, equivalent to 12.5% of anthropogenic CH4, or 5.0% of annual global CH4 emission. Methanogenesis is the final degradation process of organic matter in paddy fields. During this process, organic matters with large molecular weight in paddy soil are anoxically degraded into small molecules, such as methanol, acetate, formate and H2/CO2, by hydrolytic and fermenting microbes. Fe(III) and sulfate in paddy soil are thermodynamically more competitive with electron donors than methanogenic archaea, and they outcompete
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