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Changing boreal methane sources and constant biomass burning during the last termination
- Source :
- Nature, Nature, Nature Publishing Group, 2008, 452 (7189), pp.864 à 867. ⟨10.1038/nature06825⟩, EPIC3Nature, 452, pp. 864-867
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2008.
-
Abstract
- Past atmospheric methane concentrations show strong fluctuations in parallel to rapid glacial climate changes in the Northern Hemisphere superimposed on a glacial-interglacial doubling of methane concentrations. The processes driving the observed fluctuations remain uncertain but can be constrained using methane isotopic information from ice cores. Here we present an ice core record of carbon isotopic ratios in methane over the entire last glacial-interglacial transition. Our data show that the carbon in atmospheric methane was isotopically much heavier in cold climate periods. With the help of a box model constrained by the present data and previously published results, we are able to estimate the magnitude of past individual methane emission sources and the atmospheric lifetime of methane. We find that methane emissions due to biomass burning were about 45 Tg methane per year, and that these remained roughly constant throughout the glacial termination. The atmospheric lifetime of methane is reduced during cold climate periods. We also show that boreal wetlands are an important source of methane during warm events, but their methane emissions are essentially shut down during cold climate conditions. ©2008 Nature Publishing Group.
- Subjects :
- biomass burning
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Greenland
Biomass
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
Atmospheric sciences
01 natural sciences
Paleoatmosphere
Methane
Trees
chemistry.chemical_compound
Ice core
Ice Cover
Glacial period
History, Ancient
Carbon Isotopes
Multidisciplinary
Atmospheric methane
article
Temperature
Cold Climate
wetland
climate change
priority journal
Monte Carlo Method
carbon isotope
Meteorology
glaciation
Climate change
chemistry.chemical_element
Fires
incineration
boreal forest
[SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology
paleoatmosphere
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Atmosphere
glacial-interglacial cycle
15. Life on land
Carbon
taiga
chemistry
13. Climate action
Wetlands
Environmental science
ice core
Hydrogen
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14764687, 00280836, and 14764679
- Volume :
- 452
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....470d2cdd827477f0b2a38069319b9bff