A stable isotope titration method to determine the contribution of acetate disproportionation and carbon dioxide reduction to methanogenesis.

A novel stable isotope titration approach was developed to determine the contributions to total methane production made by CO(2) reduction and the disproportionation of acetate in anoxic environments. (13)CH(4), (12)CH(4), (13)CO(2) and (12)CO(2) production rates were measured in the head space of replicate anaerobic microcosms titrated with increasing amounts of (13)C-labelled substrates. The contribution of CO(2) reduction was calculated from the linear relationship between ratios of labelled and total CH(4) production and ratios of labelled and total CO(2) after the addition of (13)C-bicarbonate. In the case of acetoclastic methanogenesis rates of (13)CH(4) and (12)CH(4) production were fitted to a model based on an assumption that the relationship between the concentration of (13)C-labelled acetate and the rates of labelled and unlabelled methane production followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics. A comparison of the raw data with the model supported the assumption and provided both an estimate of the contribution of acetate to methane production and an estimate of the size of the indigenous acetate pool without the need to measure acetate directly. The method was applied to a freshwater sediment in the English Lake District where it was found that 66.3% (se 4.9) of methane production was due to acetate disproportionation and 28.9% (se 1.9) of methane production resulted from CO(2) reduction. This is in agreement with theoretical predictions and other empirical measurements of methanogenesis.