Abstract
Lakes are important natural emitters of the greenhouse gas methane (CH(4)). It has been shown that eutrophication, via increasing the input of labile organic matter (OM) into lake sediments and subsequently affecting the redox conditions, increases methane emissions from lake sediments through increased sediment methane production rates and decreased methane oxidation efficiency. However, the effect of organic matter lability on the structure of the methane-related microbial communities of lake sediments is not known. In this study, we show that, besides the activity, also the structure of lake sediment methane producing and consuming microbial community is significantly affected by changes in the sediment organic matter lability.