Plants Under Stress Release More Methane than Previously Thought
Like animals, plants get stressed too. And when they do, they
release an array of chemical compounds, including the potent
greenhouse gas methane. Methane (CH4) is 20 times more effective
than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere, where it
stays for more than ten years. Scientists have shown that plants
under high ultraviolet (UV) stress conditions release methane
but little study has been done to establish the effects of
multiple environmental factors, as components of global climate
change, on plant methane emissions. Mirwais Qaderi and David
Reid from the University of Calgary in Canada explored the
combined effects of temperature, UVB radiation and water stress,
on methane emissions in plants. Their work appears in the
current issue of Physiologia Plantarum. The scientists found
that higher temperature, water stress and UVB radiation
significantly enhanced CH4 emissions of faba bean, sunflower,
pea, canola, barley and wheat. The