Atmospheric methane levels are rising, and isotopic ratios within the greenhouse gas suggest that the tropics may be to blame.
methane
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Wetter Climate Increases Methane Production in Peat
As northern Minnesota's climate got wetter, precipitation drove mobile forms of young carbon deeper into peatlands, doubling the size of methane-producing strata.
Posted inNews
Aquatic Plants May Accelerate Arctic Methane Emissions
About two thirds of the gas produced by a study area near Barrow, Alaska, came from increasingly abundant greenery covering only 5% of the landscape, researchers estimate.
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Scientists Solve Charon's Red Mystery
Why are Charon's poles dusted with reddish material?
Posted inResearch Spotlights
The Role of Seafloor Methane in Ancient Global Warming
New research suggests that release of methane from seafloor hydrates was much slower than hypothesized during a period of rapid global warming about 56 million years ago.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
What Happens to Methane That Leaks from Abandoned Wells?
Three-dimensional simulations suggest that some aquifers may be more vulnerable to contamination from leaky oil wells than others.
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Algae Blooms and Gas Wells Drive Lake Erie Methane Emissions
In one of the first studies to investigate large lakes as methane sources, researchers found that Lake Erie is releasing more of the potent greenhouse gas than expected.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
U.S. Methane Emissions on the Rise
Data suggest that the United States may be responsible for half of global methane increase in the past decade.
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After a Century, Restored Wetlands May Still Be a Carbon Source
Methane emissions can drastically lower, or even reverse, the benefits of carbon sequestration in restored wetlands, according to new measurements from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tracking Carbon in the Alaskan Arctic
Researchers trace carbon through Arctic soils and find an unlikely source of methane and surprisingly low methane oxidation in watersheds throughout northern Alaska.