Temperature effects on structure and function of the methanogenic microbial communities in two paddy soils and one desert soil. rice paddy soil and desert upland soil

Temperature is an important factor regulating the production of the greenhouse gas CH4. Previous studies of temperate methanogenic paddy soils from Italy showed that structure and function of the soil microbial communities changed drastically when temperature was increased to values higher than about 40°C. Since methanogenic archaea are ubiquitous in both wetland and upland soils, we wondered whether other soils would behave similarly. Therefore, we compared paddy soils from Italy and the Philippines, which have different microbial community structures, and also investigated a desert soil from Utah (USA), which expressed CH4 production upon flooding. We incubated these soils under anoxic conditions at three different temperatures.