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High rates of methane oxidation in an Amazon floodplain lake

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Abstract

Methane (CH4) oxidation may consume large amounts of dissolved CH4 in lakes and wetlands. Here, we estimated CH4 oxidation rates in an Amazonian floodplain lake during periods representative of the annual variations in water level, using incubations and measurements of δ13C-CH4. A large fraction of the CH4 produced was oxidized (from 34 to ~ 100%, average = 80%), with volumetric CH4 oxidation rates ranging from 1 to 132 mg C m−3 d−1. Heavier values of δ13C-CH4 in surface waters when compared to bottom waters and sediment bubbles corroborates the high CH4 oxidation rates observed. The depth-integrated oxidation rates were of the same magnitude as the calculate CH4 evasion to the atmosphere, which indicates that methane oxidation is an important sink of CH4 and is likely to be important in the many similar lakes encountered in the Amazon River basin.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento—Ministério da Ciência Técnologia (CNPq/MCTI); CNPq/LBA-Edital.68/2013, processo 458036/2013-7,CNPq-Universal processo.482004/2012-6. Post-graduate scholarships were provided to PMB and JHFA, by Coordenação de Aperfeiçomento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and CNPq. PMB and JHFA also received support from the US Department of Energy (Contract No. DE-0010620) during manuscript preparation. JSS received a scholarship from the PCI/MCTI CNPq program at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA). PMB and JHFA are thankful to CAPES for the grant “Programa de Doutorado Sanduíche no Exterior -88881.134945/2016-01″ and “88881.135203/2016-01″respectively. JMM received support from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Department of Energy (Contract No. DE-0010620) and a Fulbright fellowship. VFF is partially supported by a CNPq productivity grant. The authors thank for the logistical support of INPA, João B. Rocha for the field support, Ana S. Gomes, Elizandra A. Sampaio and Renata Loureiro for laboratory and field support, Lúcia Silva for offering the floating house as a research base. We also thank Sally MacIntyre for discussions related to mixing, David Bastviken and Patrick Crill for comments on previous versions of the manuscript, and Nathan Barros for general discussions.

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Correspondence to Pedro M. Barbosa.

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Responsible Editor: Sujay Kaushal

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Barbosa, P.M., Farjalla, V.F., Melack, J.M. et al. High rates of methane oxidation in an Amazon floodplain lake. Biogeochemistry 137, 351–365 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-018-0425-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-018-0425-2

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