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Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Visualizing Methane-Cycling Microbial Dynamics in Coastal Wetlands
Published on: January 31, 2025
Evaluation of marine sediments as microbial sources for methane production from brown algae under high salinity
Toyokazu Miura1, Akihisa Kita1, Yoshiko Okamura1
1Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8530, Japan; CREST, JST, Japan.
Abstract:
Various marine sediments were evaluated as promising microbial sources for methane fermentation of Saccharina japonica, a brown alga, at seawater salinity. All marine sediments tested produced mainly acetate among volatile fatty acids. One marine sediment completely converted the produced volatile fatty acids to methane in a short period. Archaeal community analysis revealed that acetoclastic methanogens belonging to the Methanosarcina genus dominated after cultivation. Measurement of the specific conversion rate at each step of methane production under saline conditions demonstrated that the marine sediments had higher conversion rates of butyrate and acetate than mesophilic methanogenic granules. These results clearly show that marine sediments can be used as microbial sources for methane production from algae under high-salt conditions without dilution.
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