RT Journal Article
T1 Methane sources and sinks in karst systems: the Nerja cave and its vadose environment (Spain).
A1 Ojeda, Lucía
A1 Vadillo-Pérez, Iñaki
A1 Etiope, Giuseppe
A1 Benavente, José
A1 Liñán-Baena, Cristina
A1 Del Rosal Padial, Yolanda Remedios
A1 Tapia-Paniagua, Silvana Teresa
A1 Moriñigo-Gutiérrez, Miguel Ángel
A1 Carrasco, Francisco
K1 Metano
K1 Gases de efecto invernadero
K1 Karst
K1 Cuevas - España
AB Karst caves are considered a natural sink of atmospheric methane (CH4). Studies generally focus on measuring CH4 within the cave environment, and little information is available about the factors influencing CH4 abundance, such as the surrounding vadose and saturated zones of the aquifer, inputs of carbon dioxide (CO2) – a potential precursor of CH4 – and methanotrophic bacteria, which is likely the main cause of CH4 consumption. In this paper we report the first study of CH4 budget in Nerja, one of the main karst caves in Spain, based on seasonal monitoring of CH4 and CO2 concentration and stable C iso- topic ratio in the cave system, integrated with analogue data from the underlying and overlying saturated/vadose zone, and methanotrophic bacteria activity (rDNA and Polymerase Chain Reaction analyses) in cave sediments and water. The results show that the cave environment consumes, via methanotrophic activity and through c- and a–Proteobacteria, CH4 coming from both the atmosphere and the vadose/saturated zones of the aquifer, where it is produced microbially. However, vadose zone methanogenesis may seasonally exceed the methanotrophy capacity of the cave, resulting in a net CH4 increase in it. This competition process may be an important factor limiting the sink potential of karst caves.
PB Elsevier
SN 0016-7037
YR 2019
FD 2019-08-25
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/35817
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/35817
LA eng
NO Lucía Ojeda, Iñaki Vadillo, Giuseppe Etiope, José Benavente, Cristina Liñán, Yolanda del Rosal, Silvana Teresa Tapia, Miguel Ángel Moríñigo, Francisco Carrasco, Methane sources and sinks in karst systems: The Nerja cave and its vadose environment (Spain), Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Volume 259, 2019, Pages 302-315, ISSN 0016-7037, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.06.011
NO https://openpolicyfinder.jisc.ac.uk/id/publication/7181
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 ene 2026