Renewed growth of atmospheric methane

Rigby, Matthew; Prinn, Ronald G.; Fraser, Paul J.; Simmonds, Peter; Langenfelds, Ray L.; Huang, J.; Cunnold, D. M.; Steele, L. P.; Krummel, P. B.; Weiss, Ray F.; O’Doherty, Simon; Salameh, Peter K.; Wang, H.J; Harth, Christina M.; Mühle, Jens; Porter, L. W.

doi:10.1029/2008gl036037

Cited by 496 publications

(527 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

487

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Yet accounting for the uncertainties in the isotopic signatures of the sources and their trends may suggest different portionings of the global methane sources between fossil fuel and biogenic methane emissions (Schwietzke et al, 2016). A possible positive OH trend has occurred since the 1970s followed by stagnation to decreasing OH in the 2000s, possibly contributing significantly to recent observed atmospheric methane changes (Dalsøren et al, 2016;Rigby et al, 2008;McNorton et al, 2016). The challenging increase of atmospheric methane during the past decade needs more efforts to be fully understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) measurements at fixed locations also provide methane column observations . Dlugokencky et al, 1994), the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE, Prinn et al, 2000;Cunnold et al, 2002;Rigby et al, 2008), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, Francey et al, 1999) and the University of California Irvine (UCI, Simpson et al, 2012). The data are archived at the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) of the WMO Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO-GAW) programme, including measurements from other sites that are not operated as part of the four networks.…”

Section: Atmospheric Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Saunois

Bousquet

Poulter

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

933

733

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The global methane (CH 4 ) budget is becoming an increasingly important component for managing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. This relevance, due to a shorter atmospheric lifetime and a stronger warming potential than carbon dioxide, is challenged by the still unexplained changes of atmospheric CH 4 over the past decade. Emissions and concentrations of CH 4 are continuing to increase, making CH 4 the second most important human-induced greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Two major difficulties in reducing uncertainties come from the large variety of diffusive CH 4 sources that overlap geographically, and from the destruction of CH 4 by the very short-lived hydroxyl radical (OH). To address these difficulties, we have established a consortium of multi-disciplinary scientists under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project to synthesize and stimulate research on the methane cycle, and producing regular (∼ biennial) updates of the global methane budget. This consortium includes atmospheric physicists and chemists, biogeochemists of surface and marine emissions, and socio-economists who study anthropogenic emissions. Following Kirschke et al. (2013), we propose here the first version of a living review paper that integrates results of top-down studies (exploiting atmospheric observations within an atmospheric inverse-modelling framework) and bottom-up models, inventories and data-driven approaches (including process-based models for estimating land surface emissions and atmospheric chemistry, and inventories for anthropogenic emissions, data-driven extrapolations). . Top-down inversions consistently infer lower emissions in China (∼ 58 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , range 51-72, −14 %) and higher emissions in Africa (86 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , range 73-108, +19 %) than bottom-up values used as prior estimates. Overall, uncertainties for anthropogenic emissions appear smaller than those from natural sources, and the uncertainties on source categories appear larger for top-down inversions than for bottom-up inventories and models.The most important source of uncertainty on the methane budget is attributable to emissions from wetland and other inland waters. We show that the wetland extent could contribute 30-40 % on the estimated range for wetland emissions. Other priorities for improving the methane budget include the following: (i) the development of process-based models for inland-water emissions, (ii) the intensification of methane observations at local scale (flux measurements) to constrain bottom-up land surface models, and at regional scale (surface networks and satellites) to constrain top-down inversions, (iii) improvements in the estimation of atmospheric loss by OH, and (iv) improvements of the transport models integrated in top-down inversions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Atmospheric Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Saunois

Bousquet

Poulter

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

933

733

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The atmospheric CH4 concentration has increased steadily since the beginning of the industrial revolution ( 0.7 ppmv) and is stabilized at 1.8 ppmv from 1999 to 2005 (Forster et al 2007). An unexpected increase in the atmospheric growth of CH4 during the year 2007 has been recently reported (Rigby et al 2008), indicating that the sources and sinks of atmospheric CH4 are dynamics, evolving, and not well understood. Freshwater sediments, including wetlands, rice paddies and lakes, are thought to contribute 40 to 50 % of the annual atmospheric methane flux (Cicerone & Oremland 1988;Conrad 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methanogenic System of a Small Lowland Stream Sitka, Czech Republic

Rulk¹,

Bednak²,

Mach³

et al. 2013

Biomass Now - Cultivation and Utilization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Temperature forcing is constrained by global data sets for surface temperature as a proxy for soil temperature (CRU3.1; Harris et al, 2014). Monthly mean global atmospheric CH 4 concentrations multiplied by the latitudinal atmospheric CH 4 gradient were calculated from Rigby et al (2008). The N deposition data were obtained from an atmospheric chemical transport model embedded in an Earth system model , and the N input via fertilizers was obtained from Nishina et al (2017).…”

Section: Forcing Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Methanotrophy Model (MeMo v1.0): a process-based model to quantify global uptake of atmospheric methane by soil

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Soil bacteria known as methanotrophs are the sole biological sink for atmospheric methane (CH 4 ), a potent greenhouse gas that is responsible for ∼ 20 % of the humandriven increase in radiative forcing since pre-industrial times. Soil methanotrophy is controlled by a plethora of factors, including temperature, soil texture, moisture and nitrogen content, resulting in spatially and temporally heterogeneous rates of soil methanotrophy. As a consequence, the exact magnitude of the global soil sink, as well as its temporal and spatial variability, remains poorly constrained. We developed a process-based model (Methanotrophy Model; MeMo v1.0) to simulate and quantify the uptake of atmospheric CH 4 by soils at the global scale. MeMo builds on previous models by Ridgwell et al. (1999) and Curry (2007) by introducing several advances, including (1) a general analytical solution of the one-dimensional diffusion-reaction equation in porous media, (2) a refined representation of nitrogen inhibition on soil methanotrophy, (3) updated factors governing the influence of soil moisture and temperature on CH 4 oxidation rates and (4) the ability to evaluate the impact of autochthonous soil CH 4 sources on uptake of atmospheric CH 4 . We show that the improved structural and parametric representation of key drivers of soil methanotrophy in MeMo results in a better fit to observational data. A global simulation of soil methanotrophy for the period 1990-2009 using MeMo yielded an average annual sink of 33.5 ± 0.6 Tg CH 4 yr −1 . Warm and semi-arid regions (tropical deciduous forest and open shrubland) had the highest CH 4 uptake rates of 602 and 518 mg CH 4 m −2 yr −1 , respectively. In these regions, favourable annual soil moisture content (∼ 20 % saturation) and low seasonal temperature variations (variations < ∼ 6 • C) provided optimal conditions for soil methanotrophy and soil-atmosphere gas exchange. In contrast to previous model analyses, but in agreement with recent observational data, MeMo predicted low fluxes in wet tropical regions because of refinements in formulation of the influence of excess soil moisture on methanotrophy. Tundra and mixed forest had the lowest simulated CH 4 uptake rates of 176 and 182 mg CH 4 m −2 yr −1 , respectively, due to their marked seasonality driven by temperature. Global soil uptake of atmospheric CH 4 was decreased by 4 % by the effect of nitrogen inputs to the system; however, the direct addition of fertilizers attenuated the flux by 72 % in regions with high agricultural intensity (i.e. China, India and Europe) and by 4-10 % in agriculture areas receiving low rates of N input (e.g. South America). Globally, nitrogen inputs reduced soil uptake of atmospheric CH 4 by 1.38 Tg yr −1 , which is 2-5 times smaller than reported previously. In addition to improved characterization of the contemporary soil sink for atmospheric CH 4 , MeMo provides an opportunity to quantify more accurately the relative importance of soil methanotrophy in the global CH 4 cycle in the past and its capaci...

show abstract

Renewed growth of atmospheric methane

Cited by 496 publications

References 17 publications

The global methane budget 2000–2012

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Methanogenic System of a Small Lowland Stream Sitka, Czech Republic

Soil Methanotrophy Model (MeMo v1.0): a process-based model to quantify global uptake of atmospheric methane by soil

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About