Tree Methane

Among the largest uncertainties in the global CH4 budget is the role of forest trees. While upland forest soils are typically a sink of atmospheric CH4, the emission of CH4 from tree stems to the atmosphere may balance, or even exceed this sink. This project uses molecular level tools to understand the microbial mechanisms driving methanogenesis and methane oxidation inside trees. A crowd-sourcing approach is being used to gather tree core samples from researchers around the world studying tree methane fluxes to develop understanding across numerous types of environments and climatic conditions. Funding is provided by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lab Directed Research and Development. Lead PI: Nick Ward