Rice, microbes and methane

Differential effects of nitrogenous fertilizers on methane-consuming microbes in rice field and forest soils.

The impact of environmental perturbation (e.g., nitrogenous fertilizers) on the dynamics of methane fluxes from soils and wetland systems is poorly understood. Results of fertilizer studies are often contradictory, even within similar ecosystems. In the present study the hypothesis of whether these contradictory results may be explained by the composition of the methane-consuming microbial comm...

Topic of Influence, Methane and Microbes

Lice, Humans, and Microbes

Lice are small, wingless, minor ectoparasites of mammals and birds. More than 540  blood-sucking lice (Phthiraptera: Anoplura) have been described with each host having its own type of louse, suggesting the cospeciation of the lice species with their host. Among these, two lice species from two different genera infest humans: Pediculus humanus and Phthirus pubis (pubic “crab” l...

Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice paddy fields

Recent field studies in rice paddy fields in Japan and China have shown that N2O is emitted to the atmosphere not only after the application of nitrogen fertilisers under flooded conditions but also in a period from the final drainage to submergence in the following rice-growing season through nitrification or denitrification. Those results clearly indicate that CH4 and N2O emissions in rice pa...

Global methane emissions from wetlands, rice paddies, and lakes