Plants do not produce methane gas
Dutch scientists disprove recent claim that living plants would produce a large part of the greenhouse gas methane.
Early 2006 Nature published an article claiming that plants emit the greenhouse gas methane and thus make a substantial contribution to the global production of this greenhouse gas. At the time this claim caused quite some controversy. These conspicuous and controversial findings have urged a group of Dutch scientists to test these findings.
The group of Dutch scientists brought together a unique combination of expertise and facilities. Their cooperation led to an innovative experiment. Plants were grown in an environment with 13C, a non-radioactive carbon isotope. Any methane emission could thus easily be detected against the methane background of the natural atmosphere in which 12C-methane is dominant.
The scientists grew six plant species and methane emission was measured very accurately and highly sensitive by using the so-called photoacoustic laser technique. Even this technique with a sensitivity of one particle in one billion showed no significant methane emission. The scientists neither measured noticeable methane gas emission in experiments in which plants were grown for a longer period of time in a closed chamber.
This is, insofar as known, the first independent research in which the 2006 claim has been tested. The results are clear: plants emit no methane. The search for the explanation of the gap in the global methane balance remains unfinished.
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