Abstract
Methane (CH4), an important greenhouse gas (GHG), contributes ~33.0% to the total global GHGs emissions and accounts for 15–20% to the global warming. As the second most important human-generated GHG after CO2, CH4 is strongly linked with various climate phenomena. Most of the wetlands from tropics to temperate have been reported to have significantly enhanced emissions of CH4 during recent years. In wetland, microbial communities are a major determining factor in controlling the carbon cycle. The terrestrial wetlands are also among the key CH4 emitters and play a major role to climate change. The role of wetland expansion in CH4 emissions and its consequences on climate change and global warming might be a major concern for the future world. The methanogens and methanotrophs, two physiologically different microbial communities, seem to be crucial for future research investigations while comparing the CH4 production and consumption in wetland ecosystems. Anthropogenic disturbances related to wetlands are likely to influence the altering of microbial community composition of methanogens and methanotrophs and consequently net CH4 flux. The terrestrial wetlands have been reported to act as a source and sink for atmospheric CH4. Therefore, recent concerns about CH4 emission from terrestrial wetlands could be addressed properly because it is one of the major causes in contributing the status of CH4 in the environment.
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Tiwari, S., Singh, C., Singh, J.S. (2020). Wetlands: A Major Natural Source Responsible for Methane Emission. In: Upadhyay, A., Singh, R., Singh, D. (eds) Restoration of Wetland Ecosystem: A Trajectory Towards a Sustainable Environment. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7665-8_5
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