Methane paradox in tropical lakes? Sedimentary fluxes rather than pelagic production in oxic conditions sustain methanotrophy and emissions to the atmosphere

Morana, Cédric; Bouillon, Steven; Nolla-Ardèvol, Vimac; Roland, Fleur A. E.; Okello, William; Descy, Jean-Pierre; Nankabirwa, Angela; Nabafu, Erina; Springael, Dirk; Borges, Alberto V.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-5209-2020

Articles | Volume 17, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-5209-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-5209-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 20

Research article

|

29 Oct 2020

Research article |

| 29 Oct 2020

Methane paradox in tropical lakes? Sedimentary fluxes rather than pelagic production in oxic conditions sustain methanotrophy and emissions to the atmosphere

Cédric Morana, Steven Bouillon, Vimac Nolla-Ardèvol, Fleur A. E. Roland, William Okello, Jean-Pierre Descy, Angela Nankabirwa, Erina Nabafu, Dirk Springael, and Alberto V. Borges

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Final revised paper (published on 29 Oct 2020)
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Preprint (discussion started on 05 May 2020)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of “Methane paradox in tropical lakes? Sedimentary fluxes rather than water column production in oxic waters sustain methanotrophy and emissions to the atmosphere” by C. Morana et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 27 May 2020
- AC1: 'Reply to reviewer 1', Cedric Morana, 05 Aug 2020
RC2: 'Review of bg-2020-142', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Jul 2020
- AC2: 'Reply to reviewer 2', Cedric Morana, 05 Aug 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (07 Aug 2020) by Tyler Cyronak

AR by Cedric Morana on behalf of the Authors (20 Aug 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (26 Aug 2020) by Tyler Cyronak

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (08 Sep 2020)

ED: Publish as is (08 Sep 2020) by Tyler Cyronak

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Short summary

A growing body of studies challenges the paradigm that methane (CH₄) production occurs only under anaerobic conditions. Our field experiments revealed that oxic CH₄ production is closely related to phytoplankton metabolism and is indeed a common feature in five contrasting African lakes. Nevertheless, we found that methanotrophic activity in surface waters and CH₄ emissions to the atmosphere were predominantly fuelled by CH₄ generated in sediments and physically transported to the surface.