Bacterial and methanotrophic communities of Amazonian Dark Earth under methane enriched atmosphere

Author(s)

Marília Hauck Reichert

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2015-03-20

Examining board members

Tsai Siu Mui; Eleonora Cano Carmona; Margarete de Fátima Costa

• Advisor: Tsai Siu Mui

Abstract

Microorganisms are responsible for several biological processes essential to the environment, which are closely related to the rates of decomposition of organic matter and with the persistence of fertility in soils. Despite the importance and high diversity, identification of taxa involved in specific processes is usually restricted to a small fraction of the microbiota that can be isolated and cultivated. Thus, little is known about the microorganisms that act on the carbon cycle in the soil, such as those participating in the oxidation of methane (CH4), for example. These, known as methanotrophs play an important role in controlling the emission of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and may serve as a methane filter and mitigate their emissions. Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE) is an important ecosystem in the Amazonian region and contains ceramic fragments and organic amendments, such as charcoal (biochar), which were incorporated in Pre-Columbian periods. This resulted in sustainable soils with high fertility, presenting about three times more organic matter, seventy times more biochar and higher microbial diversity when compared to adjacent soils. The present work aimed to evaluate the effect of atmospheric methane enrichment on the abundance of the bacterial and methanotrophic community in ADE soils under forest and cultivation (ADE Forest and ADE Cultivated) and their respective adjacent soils (ADJ Forest and ADJ Cultivated), sampled at Caldeirão Experimental Station (Iranduba, AM). For this purpose, a microcosm experiment was performed in which the soils were incubated under an atmosphere containing 10% of methane and NMS (Nitrate mineral salts) culture medium used for methanotrophic growth in order to evaluate the response of these communities over 21 days. The variation of methane concentrations in the atmosphere of the vials was measured by gas chromatography and the soil DNA recovered in the collection time during the experiment was extracted for use in the technique of quantitative PCR (qPCR), which made it possible to quantify the number of copies of 16S rRNA Bacteria and pmoA on samples. The Amazonian Dark Earth soil showed a potential sink for atmospheric CH4. Comparing atmospheric responses of forest soils (ADE Forest and ADJ Forest) and cultivated soils (ADE Cultivated and ADJ Cultivated), noted a minor variation in the abundance of methatroph community in these last, indicating that land use change affects the ability of it to sink the methane atmosphere. Adjacent soils had different responses of ADE soils, indicating that the history formation, occupation and land use also influence the capacity of the soil to drain methane from the atmosphere. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/17035-6 - Bacterial and methanotrophic communities of Amazonian Dark Earth under methane enriched atmosphere
• Grantee: Marília Hauck Reichert
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master