Wetland Plant Evolutionary History Influences Soil and Endophyte Microbial Community Composition

Gaseous methane absorbs approximately twenty-seven times more heat than carbon-dioxide over hundred year intervals, making it a potent and important greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change. Wetland ecosystems are responsible for 20-39% of global methane emissions. Methane emission rates differ among wetlands, and this variability can be partially explained by differences in plant composition and activity. While plants influence methane emissions, they do not directly produce methane in wetlands. Microbes known as methanogens, which grow in highly reduced, submerged soils, primarily produce methane. Methanogens only persist in anoxic conditions where organic matter is available for decomposition. By reducing labile carbon compounds, chiefly acetate, methanogens can produce energy in environments where other microbes cannot survive