Viral mediation of anaerobic methane oxidation to carbon sequestration in paddy soil

[Geoengineering News]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-026-01998-z

Authors: Di Tong, Youjing Wang, Xinwei Song, Haodan Yu, Yujie Zhou, Yu Zhang, Yong Li, Bin Ma, Caixian Tang, Randy A. Dahlgren & Jianming Xu 

25 May 2026

Abstract

Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) can mitigate global warming by converting methane into either carbon dioxide or soil organic carbon (SOC). However, it is unclear whether soil viruses influence AOM and the associated carbon sequestration processes. Here we quantify the impact of viruses on the carbon sink formed through AOM and reveal the underlying mechanisms using 13C labelling and metagenomics. Our findings show that viruses can substantially increase SOC associated with AOM and alter the amount of iron-bound organic carbon (Fe-bound OC). However, the magnitude and direction of these effects depend on the type of virus. Specifically, mitomycin C-induced viruses contributed 54.5% of the newly formed SOC and caused a 73.1% loss of 13C-Fe-bound OC by facilitating the survival of related microbes, such as iron-reducing bacteria, under anaerobic conditions. In contrast, free extracellular viruses increased both 13C-SOC (+115.5%) and 13C-Fe-bound OC (+35.8%) via viral lysis, due to the high affinity of lysate dissolved organic matter for sorption onto iron(hydr)oxides. These results highlight the substantial impact of soil viruses on the stabilization of methane-derived carbon in soils, and advance our understanding of viral-controlled soil carbon biogeochemical cycles.

Source: Nature Geosciences