RUI: Controls on methanogenesis, methane oxidation, and consumer utilization of methane-derived carbon in arctic lakes

Investigators from the University of North Carolina Greensboro have received funding to determine the importance of methane cycling in food webs of Arctic lakes. The main hypothesis is that the production, oxidation, and incorporation in to food-webs of carbon derived from methane is greater than for carbon produced by photosynthesis in the numerous small, shallow lakes of the Arctic. The project will develop a novel, integrated understanding of the energy and carbon linkages among methane producers, methane oxidizing bacteria, and higher trophic levels in rapidly changing Arctic lake ecosystems.