What controls methane dynamics in the rhizosphere of wetland plants?
Project Summary: Soil biogeochemical processes depend on aspects of physical structure that are very fragile, like the delicate relationship between root hair and soil mineral surface, the gel-like structure of a biofilm that feeds on root exudates, and the tenuous organization of soil pores that pass water and gases through the soil matrix. By comparison, traditional soil sampling methods are incredibly destructive and put into question the relevance of information gained from these samples. We propose a new, non-destructive, in-situ method for studying methane biogeochemistry in wetland ecosystems, where soil physical structure is exceptionally weak. Here, methane emissions depend on tightly interactive processes including decomposition, methane production, and consumption, and the transport of both methane and oxygen between the soil and the atmosphere. Our proposed work circumvents the problems of destructive sampling by using a suite of tracers to simultaneously and uniquely measu
