Atmospheric methane variability: Centennial-scale signals in the Last Glacial Period

Rhodes, Rachael H.; Brook, Edward J.; McConnell, Joseph R.; Blunier, Thomas; Sime, Louise C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9093-7926; Faïn, Xavier; Mulvaney, Robert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5372-8148. 2017 Atmospheric methane variability: Centennial-scale signals in the Last Glacial Period. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 31 (3). 575-590. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005570

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005570

Abstract/Summary

In order to understand atmospheric methane (CH4) biogeochemistry now and in the future, we must apprehend its natural variability, without anthropogenic influence. Samples of ancient air trapped within ice cores provide the means to do this. Here we analyze the ultrahigh-resolution CH4 record of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core 67.2–9.8 ka and find novel, atmospheric CH4 variability at centennial time scales throughout the record. This signal is characterized by recurrence intervals within a broad 80–500 year range, but we find that age-scale uncertainties complicate the possible isolation of any periodic frequency. Lower signal amplitudes in the Last Glacial relative to the Holocene may be related to incongruent effects of firn-based signal smoothing processes. Within interstadial and stadial periods, the peak-to-peak signal amplitudes vary in proportion to the underlying millennial-scale oscillations in CH4 concentration—the relative amplitude change is constant. We propose that the centennial CH4 signal is related to tropical climate variability that influences predominantly low-latitude wetland CH4 emissions

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005570
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > BAS Programmes 2015 > Ice Dynamics and Palaeoclimate
ISSN:	08866236
Additional Keywords:	methane, ice cores, centennial variability, Last Glacial Period, atmospheric composition, paleoclimate
Date made live:	30 May 2017 13:06 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/517097

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005570

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > BAS Programmes 2015 > Ice Dynamics and Palaeoclimate

ISSN:

08866236

Additional Keywords:

methane, ice cores, centennial variability, Last Glacial Period, atmospheric composition, paleoclimate

Date made live:

30 May 2017 13:06 +0 (UTC)