Gwendolyn Thyen

Warming in the Arctic is happening at nearly four times the rate of the global average. An important driver of this warming is methane (CH₄), a green house gas significantly more potent than carbon dioxide. A substantial amount of CH₄ is produced and cycled by microbes in lakes and wetlands. The continuing temperature increase in the Arctic leads to runoff from melting glaciers into Arctic lakes. This could affect the community composition of microorganisms involved in methane cycling, potentially shifting the rates of CH₄ emissions from Arctic lakes. This project is a part of the CLIMET consortium. A metagenomics approach will be used to discover key microbes involved in methane cycling and examine the metabolic potential of the microbial communities. Additionally, metabolomics is used to link lake exometabolomes with microbial community activity and CH₄ cycling. Preliminary analysis of the data shows diverse methanotrophic and methanogenic microbial communities across different Arctic lakes. Further characterizing these communities will generate insights into the composition and activities of these microbial communities will allow for predictions of how global warming may affect the microbes and CH₄ cycling in Arctic lakes now and in the future.