The Science Is Settled: Scientists Discover "Wetlands" Are a Major Producer of a *Real* Greenhouse Gas, Methane; "Models" Have Failed to Account for Large Amounts of Methane Being Produced by Wetlands

In other words, a major real greenhouse gas, methane, has been undermodeled in these #FakeNews models, so that increases in temperature have been attributed to carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas so weak it's an open question if it should be classified as a greenhouse gas at all.

But you're a Science Denier for reading this actual science.

COLUMBUS, Ohio–A study of a Lake Erie wetland suggests that scientists have vastly underestimated the number of places methane-producing microbes can survive -- and, as a result, today's global climate models may be misjudging the amount of methane being released into the atmosphere.

In the journal Nature Communications, researchers at The Ohio State University and their colleagues describe the discovery of the first known methane-producing microbe that is active in an oxygen-rich environment.

Oxygen is supposed to be toxic to such microbes, called methanogens, but the newly named Candidatus Methanothrix paradoxum thrives in it.

In fact, 80 percent of the methane in the wetland under study came from oxygenated soils. The microbe's habitat extends from the deepest parts of a wetland, which are devoid of oxygen, all the way to surface soils.

I think that means the methane being produced by wetlands is 500% what it had been estimated as. They assumed it could only be produced in the 20% of wetland soil that was oxygen-poor, but it turns out it can be produced from oxygenated soils too (that is, all soil, not just the 20% they previously assumed).

"We've always assumed that oxygen was toxic to all methanogens," said Kelly Wrighton, project leader and professor of microbiology at Ohio State. "That assumption is so far entrenched in our thinking that global climate models simply don't allow for methane production in the presence of oxygen. Our work shows that this way of thinking is outdated, and we may be grossly under-accounting for methane in our existing climate models."

More work needs to be done before researchers can determine exactly how much more methane is out there, but the microbe's habitat appears to be global.

...

Researchers have long known that wetlands are Earth's largest natural source of methane. They've placed estimates on the amount of methane produced globally based on the notion that only the oxygen-free portion of any wetland could harbor methanogens.

In just the last decade, ocean researchers have seen evidence of methane being produced in oxygenated water, and dubbed the phenomenon the "methane paradox," but no microorganism has been found to be responsible.

...

When doctoral student Jordan Angle analyzed the samples, he found something strange: Soils that were rich in oxygen contained more methane than soils that lacked oxygen.

"I didn't believe it, and thought he'd gotten the samples mixed up," Wrighton said.

The new methane-generating microbe will be given the common name "Al Franken's Busyhands," because it smells like ass.

posted by Ace at 01:44 PM

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