Abstract
Recently, plant-derived methane (CH(4)) emission has been questioned because limited evidence of the chemical mechanism has been identified to account for the process. We conducted an experiment with four treatments (i.e. winter-grazed, natural alpine meadow; naturally restored alpine meadow eight years after cultivation; oat pasture and bare soil without roots) during the growing seasons of 2007 and 2008 to examine the question of CH(4) emission by plant communities in the alpine meadow. Each treatment consumed CH(4) in closed, opaque chambers in the field, but two types of alpine meadow vegetation reduced CH(4) consumption compared with bare soil, whereas oat pasture increased consumption. This result could imply that meadow vegetation produces CH(4). However, measurements of soil temperature and water content showed significant differences between vegetated and bare soil and appeared to explain differences in CH(4) production between treatments. Our study strongly suggests that the apparent CH(4) production by vegetation, when compared with bare soil in some previous studies, might represent differences in soil temperature and water-filled pore space and not the true vegetation sources of CH(4).
Highlights
Serious debates have focused on methane (CH4) emission by living plants and plant communities under aerobic conditions (Keppler et al 2006, 2008; Butenhoff & Khalil 2007; Dueck et al 2007; Beerling et al 2008; Cao et al 2008; Kirschbaum & Walcroft 2008; Wang et al 2008)
Some field observations pointed to evidence of aerobic CH4 emission from plants (Cao et al 2008), these studies did not consider the changes caused by environmental treatments, which may control CH4 fluxes by regulating methanogenesis and oxidation processes (Pearce & Clymo 2001; Zhuang et al 2007)
Opaque chamber technique, we conducted an experiment with four treatments during the growing seasons of 2007 and 2008 to examine the hypothesis that abiotic rather than biotic factors resulted in the difference in CH4 consumption between plots with vegetation and plots with bare soil
Summary
(2009) 5, 535–538 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0123 Published online 1 May 2009. We conducted an experiment with four treatments (i.e. winter-grazed, natural alpine meadow; naturally restored alpine meadow eight years after cultivation; oat pasture and bare soil without roots) during the growing seasons of 2007 and 2008 to examine the question of CH4 emission by plant communities in the alpine meadow. Each treatment consumed CH4 in closed, opaque chambers in the field, but two types of alpine meadow vegetation reduced CH4 consumption compared with bare soil, whereas oat pasture increased consumption. This result could imply that meadow vegetation produces CH4.
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