How Microbes Produce Methane

Methane production in anaerobic ecosystems depends on methanogenic archaea and the microbes that work with them. This process happens where oxygen is absent, such as wetlands, sediments, and animal gastrointestinal tracts. In these anoxic habitats, aerobic respiration cannot run, so microbes use other pathways to break down ...

In oxygen-free environments, specialized archaea called methanogens carry out methanogenesis, producing methane as the end product of their energy metabolism.

Organic compounds from dead organisms often sink into anoxic zones, where cellulolytic bacteria break them down into simple sugars.

Fermentative microbes convert these sugars i...