Do methanotrophs drive phosphorus mineralization in soil ecosystem?

Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Ahead of Print. Experiments were carried out to elucidate linkage between methane consumption and mineralization of phosphorous (P) from different P sources. The treatments were (i)  no CH4 + no P amendment (absolute control), (ii) with CH4 + no P amendment (control), (iii) with CH4 + inorganic P as Ca3(PO4)2, and (iv) with CH4 + organic P as sodium phytate. P sources were added at 25 µg P·(g soil)−1. Soils were incubated to undergo three repeated CH4 feeding cycles , referred to as feeding cycle I, feeding cycle II, and feeding cycle III. CH4 consumption rate k (µg CH4 consumed·(g soil)−1·day−1) was 0.297 ± 0.028 in no P amendment control, 0.457 ± 0.016 in Ca3(PO4)2, and 0.627 ± 0.013 in sodium phytate. Rate k was stimulated by 2 to 6 times o ver CH4 feeding cycles and followed the trend of sodium phytate > Ca3(PO4)2  > no P amendment control. CH4 consumption stimulated P solubilization from Ca3(PO4)2 by a factor of 2.86. Acid phosphatase ( µg paranitrophenol released·(g soil)−1·h−1) was higher in sodium phytate than the no P amendment control. Abundance of 16S rRNA and pmoA genes increased with CH4 consumption rates. The results of the study suggested that CH4 consumption drives mineralization of unavailable inorganic and orga nic P sources in the soil ecosystem.
Source: Canadian Journal of Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Source Type: research