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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 02 2017, @03:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the also-useful-at-frat-parties dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Lurking in a lake half a mile beneath Antarctica's icy surface, methane-eating microbes may mitigate the release of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as ice sheets retreat.

A new study published in Nature Geoscience traces methane's previously unknown path below the ice in a spot that was once thought to be inhospitable to life. Study researchers sampled the water and sediment in Antarctica's subglacial Whillans Lake by drilling 800 meters through ice for the first time ever. Next they measured methane amounts and used genomic analyses to find that 99 percent of methane released into the lake is gobbled up by microbes.

These tiny microorganisms may have a big impact on a warming world by preventing methane from seeping into the atmosphere when ice sheets melt, said Brent Christner, a University of Florida microbiologist and co-author on the study.

"This is an environment that most people look at and don't think it could ever really directly impact us," Christner said. "But this is a process that could have climatic implications."

Additional coverage at the NSF (National Science Foundation), who funded the research team.

Journal Reference: Alexander B. Michaud, John E. Dore, Amanda M. Achberger, Brent C. Christner, Andrew C. Mitchell, Mark L. Skidmore, Trista J. Vick-Majors, John C. Priscu. Microbial oxidation as a methane sink beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nature Geoscience, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2992

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:52PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 02 2017, @04:52PM (#547998) Journal

    While this specific report is new, the process itself is well known. When methane is released far below the surface of the ocean, most of it is eaten before it ever reaches the atmosphere. The problem with methyl-cathlates is that some of them aren't that far below the surface, and sometimes large amounts are released at once. In either case most of the methane get into the atmosphere, where it takes it awhile to get eaten (but that's why methane has a short atmospheric half-life).

    So in every case where methane is being released you need to worry about:
    1) How far does it need to travel to reach the atmosphere?
    2) How much is being released at a time?

    Permafrost melting is worrisome because it's just about right at the surface. Methyl-cathlates are worrying because sometimes they release in large burps. (And I'm not even talking about the really rare extremely large burps, just burps too large enough for the bacteria to eat most of the gas before it reaches the air.) IIUC the bacteria that eat methane require oxygen to metabolize it, so you don't count the time when it's anaerobic. Just thawing isn't sufficient to start it being eaten...that also needs free oxygen. But if it leaks out slowly it gets converted into CO2 by bacteria eating it...and some may get converted into a durable carbohydrate, and eventually turn into oil...assuming it never reaches the surface.

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