Connecting methane emissions to methane ecology in aquatic systems

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for fully one-fifth of global warming. Freshwater bodies like lakes, streams, and reservoirs are major methane emitters, so much so that methane from reservoirs cancels out some of hydropower’s CO₂ advantage. The gas is produced by bacteria in oxygen-starved bottom layers of the water bodies. This project will study methane emissions and the ecology of microbes that produce and oxidize methane, focusing on the Connecticut River watershed as well as on a group of reservoirs in Nepal, which is ramping up hydropower. Better understanding methane oxidation and emissions should help decisionmakers calculate hydropower’s overarching effects.