Contribution of oxic methane production to surface methane emission in lakes and its global importance

Recent discovery of oxic methane production in sea and lake waters, as well as wetlands demands re-thinking of the global methane cycle and re-assessment of the contribution of oxic waters to atmospheric methane emission. Here we analysed system-wide sources and sinks of surface-water methane in a temperate lake. Using a mass balance analysis, we show that internal methane production in well-oxygenated surface water is an important source for surface-water methane during the stratified period. Combining our results and literature reports, oxic methane contribution to emission follows a predictive function of littoral sediment area and surface mixed layer volume. The contribution of oxic methane source(s) is predicted to increase with lake size, accounting for the majority (>50 %) of surface methane emission for lakes with surface areas >1 km2

The Association of Different Detergents with the Photosynthetic Reaction Center Protein of Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 and the Effects on its Photochemistry

Detergent-free reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 were used to study the solubilization of reaction centers in various detergents and their effects on reaction center photochemistry. 500 +/- 100 n-octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside or 51 +/- 5 Triton X-100 molecules were associated with one reaction center. For N,N-alkylamine N-oxide detergents with chain lengths in the range from 8-13 carbon atoms, the number of detergent molecules associated with the reaction centers increased with decreasing chain length. The amount of detergent molecules associated with the reaction centers decreased almost tenfold if the pH was increased from pH 6 to pH 10, The addition of 5% 1,2,3-heptanetriol to various detergents lowered the detergent/reaction center ratio by a factor of two compared to that fur the pure detergent. The detergent concentration at which solubilization of the reaction center occurs was close to the critical micelle concentration for all detergents studied. The absorption band at 865 nm of the primary donor in the reaction center shifts to 846 nm when detergent was removed from the reaction center; upon resolubilization with various detergents, this band shifts back to 865 nm. In 80-90% of the detergent-free reaction centers, the secondary electron transfer from Q(A) to Q(B) was inhibited; this electron transfer was restored after re-addition of detergent