Can algae found in water and land be a source of greenhouse gas methane?

- Discovery-Dr. Vihari shadow

- Cyanobacteria produce methane. This gas can be produced in oxygen rich and weak environments, as well as in both illuminated and non-illuminated environments

When we look at the most important events in the history of the earth four and a half billion, our eyes are fixed on one of the most important events. That phenomenon is the development of the process of photosynthesis in the organism. This is the process of scientifically capturing the light energy coming from the sun. It is the basis of the existence of all living things on earth. Very few events have had such a profound effect on life as the ability to derive energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. He knows that the direction of life has changed. The face of the earth has changed.

Before photosynthesis, life was a single-celled micro-organism. The energy sources of these micro-organisms were chemicals, iron, methane, carbon dioxide. The lives of these creatures depended on it. Without photosynthesis, there would be very little oxygen in the atmosphere. There would be no plants, no animals, no animals and birds, only micro-organisms. The primitive soup of those minerals and carbon dioxide would only have survived the Usedos. Photosynthesis freed life from these restrictions. The oxygen he produced paved the way for a complex life. Totally changed the Earth's atmosphere. The question is who initiated this process? There must be someone who has started consuming the light. This honor goes to a type of micro-organism called cyanobacteria.

These micro-organisms absorbed sunlight and began to use it for energy. Using energy helped make carbohydrates and fuels for their growth and development. How he performed this miracle is unclear, but genetic studies suggest that the light-accumulating device evolved from a protein. Its job was to exchange energy between the atoms of a protein. Thus began photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria are the first organisms to make photosynthesis. And produces free oxygen.

Cyanobacteria means blue bacteria, or blue and green algae. These algae are found all over the world. The community of these fibrous bacteria i.e. filament bacteria is ubiquitous.

Recently, in January 2020, an international team discovered that these cyanobacteria produce the greenhouse gas methane. Just as carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, so are other greenhouse gases that give rise to global warming. Research over the past decade has shown that methane is about 20 times more efficient at dissipating heat into the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Hence it is worrisome. In this regard, in a study of methane derived from natural activities, the researchers studied the cyanobacteria found in the form of this algae. A few years ago, researchers discovered that the level of methane near the surface of a lake in Germany was higher than normal. They also discovered that the amount of algae in the water was increasing. This raises the puzzling question in the minds of researchers as to whether these algae are responsible for the rising levels of methane. To test this possibility, the researchers collected samples from a variety of sources and tested them in a laboratory using a mass spectrometer, and found that all the sources, cyanobacteria in soil, freshwater and seawater algae, produce methane.

Cyanobacteria are unicellular organisms. A cell is a microscopic unit of life. Are usually fibrous. Its system measures 1 to 3 micrometers. One micrometer is one tenth of a meter. Its layers are found in addition to the sea surface in lakes, on benches, in soil, on rocks, on the surface of cuts.

An international research team at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and England Fisheries (IGB) and the University of Heidelberg studied about seventeen species of cyanobacterial species produced in sea freshwater and land. To do this, researchers at the University of Heidelberg have studied how methane is produced when light energy is converted into chemical energy during photosynthesis in cyanobacterial cells, according to IGB doctor Meena Bezic. The findings of these researchers show that cyanobacteria not only produce methane but can produce this gas in both oxygen-rich and oxygen-deficient environments, as well as in both illuminated and non-illuminated environments.

Methane is responsible for the greenhouse effect along with carbon dioxide and other gases. Warms the Earth's atmosphere. Hence it is an important contributor to climate change. So this research becomes important. At present, it is not possible to estimate the amount of methane produced by these cyanobacteria globally. But the subject of this research should be specific in the time to come.