Megan ByrneMicrobes Eat Methane
October 19th 2006 00:32
Greenhouse Effect
By consuming the methane gas from underwater mud volcanoes, the microbes constantly help maintain a healthy climate on the planet. Their metabolism is such that they depend on the energy stored in methane and each of the different creatures contributes uniquely to controlling almost half of the naturally occurring atmospheric emissions. For instance, one type uses oxygen to break down the gas, a second teams up with still other bacteria species to use sulfate to convert the gasses into energy.
There has been an almost three-fold rise in the methane in the Earth's atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial revolution. About two-thirds of the current annual methane emissions are human influenced. Natural (wetland) emissions are most often caused by prolonged wet or dry periods.
While the microbes work to reduce gasses under the water, ultraviolet radiation produces chemical reactions which remove over 90 percent of the methane emitted to the atmosphere.
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