Global warming will cause ecosystems to produce more methane than first predicted
New research suggests that as the Earth warms natural ecosystems such as freshwaters will release more methane than expected from predictions based on temperature increases alone.
The study, published today in Nature Climate Change, attributes this difference to changes in the balance of microbial communities within ecosystems that regulate methane emissions.
The production and removal of methane from ecosystems is regulated by two types of microorganisms, methanogens—which naturally produce methane—and methanotrophs that remove methane by converting it into carbon dioxide. Previous research has suggested that these two natural processes show different sensitivities to temperature and could therefore be affected differently by global warming.
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Atlantis Viewpoint
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with some 28 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100 year period. Over 40 per cent of methane is released from freshwaters such as wetlands, lakes and rivers making them a major contributor to global methane emissions.
