Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Record breaking atmospheric methane growth rates were observed in 2020 and 2021 (15.2±0.5 and 17.8±0.5 parts per billion per year), the highest since the early 1980s. Here we use an ensemble of atmospheric inversions informed by surface or satellite methane observations to infer emission changes during these two years relative to 2019. Results show global methane emissions increased by 20.3±9.9 and 24.8±3.1 teragrams per year in 2020 and 2021, dominated by heightened emissions from tropical and boreal inundated areas, aligning with rising groundwater storage and regional warming. Current process-based wetland models fail to capture the tropical emission surges revealed by atmospheric inversions, likely due to inaccurate representation of wetland extents and associated methane emissions. Our findings underscore the critical role of tropical inundated areas in the recent methane emission surges and highlight the need to integrate multiple data streams and modeling tools for better constraining tropical wetland emissions. The record-breaking atmospheric methane growth rates in 2020 and 2021 revealed heightened emissions from inundated areas in tropical Africa and Asia. However, current processed-based wetland models fail to capture emission surges in these regions.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Xin Lin, Shushi Peng, Philippe Ciais, Didier Hauglustaine, Xin Lan, Gang Liu, Michel Ramonet, Yi Xi, Yi Yin, Zhen Zhang, Hartmut Bösch, Philippe Bousquet, Frédéric Chevallier, Bogang Dong, Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, Santanu Halder, Robert J. Parker, Benjamin Poulter, Tianjiao Pu, Marine Remaud, Alexandra Runge, Marielle Saunois, Rona L. Thompson, Yukio Yoshida, Bo Zheng
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Peking University, Cyprus Institute, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, New York University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, University of Bremen, University of California, Berkeley, University of Leicester, National Centre for Earth Observation, Goddard Space Flight Center, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, NILU, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex, Tsinghua University
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,790
Funders: UK Research and Innovation, Sight Research UK, University of Leicester, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Environment, Institut National Du Cancer, Peking University, Grand Équipement National De Calcul Intensif, Natural Environment Research Council, National Centre for Earth Observation
OpenAlex ID: W4405895714