[Effect of temperature on methane production and oxidation in soils]

The influence of temperature and its mechanism on methane production and oxidation in soils were reviewed in this paper. Temperature can alter the soil ability to produce methane through changing types of dominant methanogens in archaeal community. Dominant methanogen is Methanosarcinaceae at higher temperature which can utilize both H2/CO2 and acetate as the precursor to produce methane, while Methanosaetaceae at lower temperature which only use acetate as the precursor and produce far less methane than do Methanosarcinaceae. Increasing soil temperature apparently raises soil ability to produce methane, which is called temperature effectiveness and expressed as Q10 with a range from 1.5 to 28 and an average of 4.1. There is an obviously positive correlation between temperature effectiveness (Q10) on methane production and substrate content. As compared to methane production, effect of temperature on methane oxidation is lower, which may be related to the strong affinity of methanotrophs for methane.