Wetland Emission and Atmospheric Sink Changes Explain Methane Growth in 2020

Atmospheric methane growth reached an exceptionally high rate of 15.1 ± 0.4 parts per billion per year in 2020 despite a probable decrease in anthropogenic methane emissions during COVID-19 lockdowns(1). Here we quantify changes in methane sources and in its atmospheric sink in 2020 compared with 20...

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Veröffentlicht in:Nature (London) Jg. 612; H. 7940; S. 477 - 482
Hauptverfasser: Peng, Shushi, Lin, Xin, Thompson, Rona L, Xi, Yi, Liu, Gang, Hauglustaine, Didier, Lan, Xin, Poulter, Benjamin, Ramonet, Michel, Saunois, Marielle, Yin, Yi, Zhang, Zhen, Zheng, Bo, Ciais, Philippe
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Goddard Space Flight Center Nature Research 15.12.2022
Nature Publishing Group UK
Nature Publishing Group
Schlagworte:
704/106/35/824
704/106/47
704/106/694
704/47/4113
Anthropogenic factors
Atmosphere - chemistry
Atmospheric methane
Climate change
Communicable Disease Control - statistics & numerical data
Continental interfaces, environment
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Datasets
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing
Emission analysis
Emissions
Emissions control
Environment Pollution
Fossil fuels
Greenhouse gases
Growth rate
History, 21st Century
Human Activities - statistics & numerical data
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Humidity
Inversions
Methane
Methane - analysis
Methane emissions
Methane sources
multidisciplinary
Natural gas
Nitrogen
Nitrogen oxides
Nitrogen Oxides - analysis
Nitrogen oxides emissions
Ocean, Atmosphere
Ozone
Ozone - analysis
Pandemics
Permafrost
Photochemicals
Positive feedback
Precipitation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sciences of the Universe
Temperature
Time Factors
Trends
Troposphere
Tropospheric ozone
Wetlands
Eurasia
ISSN:0028-0836, 1476-4687, 1476-4687
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Zusammenfassung:Atmospheric methane growth reached an exceptionally high rate of 15.1 ± 0.4 parts per billion per year in 2020 despite a probable decrease in anthropogenic methane emissions during COVID-19 lockdowns(1). Here we quantify changes in methane sources and in its atmospheric sink in 2020 compared with 2019. We find that, globally, total anthropogenic emissions decreased by 1.2 ± 0.1 teragrams of methane per year (Tg CH4 yr−1), fire emissions decreased by 6.5 ± 0.1 Tg CH4 yr−1 and wetland emissions increased by 6.0 ± 2.3 Tg CH4 yr−1. Tropospheric OH concentration decreased by 1.6 ± 0.2 per cent relative to 2019, mainly as a result of lower anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and associated lower free tropospheric ozone during pandemic lockdowns(2). From atmospheric inversions, we also infer that global net emissions increased by 6.9 ± 2.1 Tg CH4 yr−1 in 2020 relative to 2019, and global methane removal from reaction with OH decreased by 7.5 ± 0.8 Tg CH4 yr−1. Therefore, we attribute the methane growth rate anomaly in 2020 relative to 2019 to lower OH sink (53 ± 10 per cent) and higher natural emissions (47 ± 16 per cent), mostly from wetlands. In line with previous findings(3,4,) our results imply that wetland methane emissions are sensitive to a warmer and wetter climate and could act as a positive feedback mechanism in the future. Our study also suggests that nitrogen oxide emission trends need to be taken into account when implementing the global anthropogenic methane emissions reduction pledge(5).
Bibliographie:GSFC
Goddard Space Flight Center
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-022-05447-w