oa Bacteriohopanepolyols Track Seasonal Community Changes of Methane Oxidizing Bacteria in a Stratified Eutrophic Lake

Freshwater lakes are significant sources of the greenhouse gas methane. Methane release from lakes is in large part mitigated by aerobic methane oxidizing bacteria (MOB) metabolizing methane to CO2. A warming climate and anthropic activity have a marked environmental impact on lake systems, however, long-term effects of this change on MOB communities is currently poorly constrained. The development of a reliable proxy to track MOB communities in the face of past climate change in the required to better understand how they will be affected by future change. MOB produce a specific array of membrane lipids known as bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs), which have been shown to be promising biomarkers for MOB. The development of such a biomarker requires an understanding of current MOB communities and the BHP assemblages they produce. Here, we present a study on the BHP assemblages produced by MOB in Rotsee, a stratified eutrophic lake in central Switzerland.