The role of oxygen in stimulating methane production in wetlands

Methane (CH(4)), a potent greenhouse gas, is the second most important greenhouse gas contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide (CO(2)). The biological emissions of CH(4) from wetlands are a major uncertainty in CH(4) budgets. Microbial methanogenesis by Archaea is an anaerobic process accounting for most biological CH(4) production in nature, yet recent observations indicate that large emissions can originate from oxygenated or frequently oxygenated wetland soil layers. To determine how oxygen (O(2)) can stimulate CH(4) emissions, we used incubations of Sphagnum peat to demonstrate that the temporary exposure of peat to O(2) can increase CH(4) yields up to 2000‐fold during subsequent anoxic conditions relative to peat without O(2) exposure. Geochemical (including ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, X‐ray absorbance spectroscopy) and microbiome (16S rDNA amplicons, metagenomics) analyses of peat showed that higher CH(4) yields of redox‐oscillated peat were due to functional shifts in the peat microbiome arising during redox oscillation that enhanced peat carbon (C) degradation. Novosphingobium species with O(2)‐dependent aromatic oxygenase genes increased greatly in relative abundance during the oxygenation period in redox‐oscillated peat compared to anoxic controls. Acidobacteria species were particularly important for anaerobic processing of peat C, including in the production of methanogenic substrates H(2) and CO(2). Higher CO(2) production during the anoxic phase of redox‐oscillated peat stimulated hydrogenotrophic CH(4) production by Methanobacterium species. The persistence of reduced iron (Fe(II)) during prolonged oxygenation in redox‐oscillated peat may further enhance C degradation through abiotic mechanisms (e.g., Fenton reactions). The results indicate that specific functional shifts in the peat microbiome underlie O(2) enhancement of CH(4) production in acidic, Sphagnum‐rich wetland soils. They also imply that understanding microbial dynamics spanning temporal and spatial redox transitions in peatlands is critical for constraining CH(4) budgets; predicting feedbacks between climate change, hydrologic variability, and wetland CH(4) emissions; and guiding wetland C management strategies.