Methane, a greenhouse gas, plays a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle, influencing the Earth’s climate. Only a limited number of microorganisms control the flux of biologically produced methane in nature, including methane-oxidizing bacteria, anaerobic methanotrophic archaea, and methanogenic archaea. Although previous studies have revealed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of methane-metabolizing microorganisms in local regions by using the marker genes pmoA or mcrA, their biogeographical patterns and environmental drivers remain largely unknown at a global scale. Here, we used 3419 metagenomes generated from georeferenced soil samples to examine the global patterns of methane metabolism marker gene abundances in soil, which generally represent the global distribution of methane-metabolizing microorganisms. The resulting maps revealed notable latitudinal trends in the abundances of methane-metabolizing microorganisms across global soils, with higher abundances in the sub-Arctic, sub-Antarctic, and tropical rainforest regions than in temperate regions. The variations in global abundances of methane-metabolizing microorganisms were primarily governed by vegetation cover. Our high-resolution global maps of methane-metabolizing microorganisms will provide valuable information for the prediction of biogenic methane emissions under current and future climate scenarios.

中文翻译：

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全球土壤甲烷代谢标记基因图谱


甲烷是一种温室气体，在全球碳循环中发挥着关键作用，影响着地球的气候。自然界中只有有限数量的微生物控制着生物产生的甲烷的通量，包括甲烷氧化细菌、厌氧甲烷氧化古菌和产甲烷古菌。尽管之前的研究利用标记基因pmoA或mcrA揭示了局部区域甲烷代谢微生物的时空分布特征，但它们的生物地理格局和环境驱动因素在全球范围内仍然很大程度上未知。在这里，我们使用地理参考土壤样本生成的 3419 个宏基因组来检查土壤中甲烷代谢标记基因丰度的全球模式，这通常代表甲烷代谢微生物的全球分布。由此产生的地图揭示了全球土壤中甲烷代谢微生物丰度的显着纬度趋势，亚北极、亚南极和热带雨林地区的丰度高于温带地区。全球甲烷代谢微生物丰度的变化主要受植被覆盖的影响。我们的甲烷代谢微生物的高分辨率全球地图将为预测当前和未来气候情景下的生物甲烷排放提供有价值的信息。