About this Research Topic

Background

Currently, the global average temperature is projected to increase by 0.2 °C per decade due to past and ongoing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To limit global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, not only does carbon dioxide (CO2) emission need to reach net zero around 2050, but the emissions of other GHGs also have to reduce substantially. Nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are very important GHGs, and their global warming potentials are 300 and 25 times that of CO2 over a 100-year time scale. Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric N2O concentrations have increased by more than 20%, and CH4 concentrations have nearly tripled to the current 1900 ppb. Studies have suggested that the ongoing increase of atmospheric N2O and CH4 emissions is mostly attributed to microbial activities.

Microbes are the key drivers of biogeochemical carbon and nitrogen cycles and play predominant roles in controlling the production and consumption of GHGs in natural and anthropogenic ecosystems. Photo- and chemo-autotrophic microbes sequester CO2 into soil, while microbial decomposition and respiration return fixed carbon back to the atmosphere. N2O can be produced via various processes, while its microbial reduction is currently the only known biological sink. In the past decades, novel enzymes and processes involved in nitrogen and CH4 cycling have been continuously discovered, such as atypical nitrous oxide reductase, comammox, oxygenic denitrification and anaerobic oxidation of CH4 coupled to the reduction of nitrate, nitrite, iron and manganese oxides. However, the ecological roles of these novel processes are still elusive. The increase of atmospheric GHGs suggests an imbalance between their sources and sinks. Thus, it is necessary to understand the processes by which microorganisms control the flux of GHGs in different environments, including soils, water bodies, wetlands and livestock; also, to determine how microorganisms are influenced by anthropogenic and environmental factors and how they respond to the changing climate. This could help us to develop more targeted strategies for reducing GHG emissions and mitigating global warming.

This research topic welcomes Original Research articles, Perspectives and Reviews that address environmental, microbial and theoretical aspects of GHGs and mitigation. A broad range of ecological, physiological, methodological, modeling, and cross-disciplinary studies are accepted. The research themes are including but are not limited to:
• GHGs turnover processes, microbes and their ecological importance;
• Roles of soil fauna and viruses in GHG emissions;
• Environmental controls of GHG emissions from various ecosystems, including livestock;
• The impact of global warming on GHG emissions and functional microbes;
• Estimation and modelling of GHG fluxes and microbial sinks;
• Microbiome based strategies for GHG mitigation.

Keywords: Greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, methane oxidation, denitrification, global warming, carbon neutrality

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