Soil nitrogen substances and denitrifying communities regulate the anaerobic oxidation of methane in wetlands of Yellow River Delta, China

Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) in wetland soils is widely recognized as a key sink for the greenhouse gas methane (CH4). The occurrence of this reaction is influenced by several factors, but the exact process and related mechanism of this reaction remain unclear, due to the complex interactions between multiple influencing factors in nature. Therefore, we investigated how environmental and microbial factors affect AOM in wetlands using laboratory incubation methods combined with molecular biology techniques. The results showed that wetland AOM was associated with a variety of environmental factors and microbial factors. The environmental factors include such as vegetation, depth, hydrogen ion concentration (pH), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), electrical conductivity (EC), total nitrogen (TN), nitrate (NO3−), sulfate (SO42−), and nitrous oxide (N2O) flux, among them, soil N substances (TN, NO3−, N2O) have essential regulatory roles in the AOM process, while NO3− and N2O may be the key electron acceptors driving the AOM process under the coexistence of multiple electron acceptors. Moreover, denitrification communities (narG, nirS, nirK, nosZI, nosZII) and anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME-2d) were identified as important functional microorganisms affecting the AOM process, which is largely regulated by the former. In the environmental context of growing global anthropogenic N inputs to wetlands, these findings imply that N cycle-mediated AOM processes are a more important CH4 sink for controlling global climate change. This studying contributes to the knowledge and prediction of wetland CH4 biogeochemical cycling and provides a microbial ecology viewpoint on the AOM response to global environmental change. [Display omitted] •Effects of various environmental and microbial factors on wetland AOM were studied.•AOM rate in wetlands promoted by vegetation cover.•NO3− and N2O may be the key electron acceptors driving the AOM process.•Soil N substances and denitrification communities regulate wetland AOM.•N cycle-mediated AOM processes play an important role as CH4 sink in wetlands.