Latest Methanotroph Stories
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online When it happened in 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and was described as one of the greatest man-made ecological disasters to ever impact the region. However, new research presented at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in New Orleans this week suggested that the Gulf has a natural mechanism capable of breaking down spilled...
The benefits to animals of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils have been well documented "“ helping the heart and circulatory system, improving meat quality and reducing methane emissions.These last two benefits may only apply to cows but lowering emissions is important for the environment, as methane given off by farm animals is a major contribution to greenhouse gas levels. Today (Monday 30 March) researchers from University College Dublin reported that by including 2% fish oil in the diet...
Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena succeeded in capturing syntrophic (means "feeding together") microorganisms that are known to dramatically reduce the oceanic emission of methane into the atmosphere. These microorganisms that oxidize methane anaerobically are an important component of the global carbon cycle and a major sink for methane on Earth. Methane -- a more than 20...
By Tanthachoon, Nathiya Chiemchaisri, Chart; Chiemchaisri, Wilai; Tudsri, Sayan; Kumar, Sunil ABSTRACT The effect of compost and vegetation on methane (CH^sub 4^) oxidation was investigated during wet and dry conditions in a tropical region. A laboratory-scale experiment was conducted to examine the performance of nonvegetated and vegetated landfill cover systems in terms of CH^sub 4^ oxidation efficiency. Two types of landfill cover materials (compost and sandy loam) and two species of...
A new species of bacteria discovered living in one of the most extreme environments on Earth could yield a tool in the fight against global warming. In a paper published on Dec. 6 in the prestigious science journal Nature, U of C biology professor Peter Dunfield and colleagues describe the methane-eating microorganism they found in the geothermal field known as Hell's Gate, near the city of Rotorua in New Zealand. It is the hardiest "methanotrophic" bacterium yet discovered, which makes it a...
By Wymore, Ryan A Lee, M Hope; Keener, William K; Miller, Amber R; Et al ABSTRACT Idaho National Laboratory's Test Area North is the site of a trichloroethene (TCE) plume resulting from waste injections. Previous investigations revealed that TCE was being attenuated relative to two codisposed internal tracers, tritium and tetrachloroethene, with a half-life of 9 to 21 years. Biological attenuation mechanisms were investigated using a novel suite of assays, including enzyme activity probes...
