Old carbon reservoirs were not important in the deglacial methane budget

Dyonisius, M.N.; Petrenko, V.V.; Smith, A.M.; Hua, Q.; Yang, B.; Schmitt, J.; Beck, J.; Seth, B.; Bock, M.; Hmiel, B.; Vimont, I.; Menking, J.A.; Shackleton, S.A.; Baggenstos, D.; Bauska, T.K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1901-0367; Rhodes, R.H.; Sperlich, P.; Beaudette, R.; Harth, C.; Kalk, M.; Brook, E.J.; Fischer, H.; Severinghaus, J.P.; Weiss, R.F.. 2020 Old carbon reservoirs were not important in the deglacial methane budget. Science, 367 (6480). 907-910. 10.1126/science.aax0504

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Abstract/Summary

Permafrost and methane hydrates are large, climate-sensitive old carbon reservoirs that have the potential to emit large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as the Earth continues to warm. We present ice core isotopic measurements of methane (Δ14C, δ13C, and δD) from the last deglaciation, which is a partial analog for modern warming. Our results show that methane emissions from old carbon reservoirs in response to deglacial warming were small (<19 teragrams of methane per year, 95% confidence interval) and argue against similar methane emissions in response to future warming. Our results also indicate that methane emissions from biomass burning in the pre-Industrial Holocene were 22 to 56 teragrams of methane per year (95% confidence interval), which is comparable to today.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1126/science.aax0504
Date made live:	05 Mar 2020 14:13 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527171

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