Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review
Abstract Large quantities of methane are stored in hydrates and permafrost within shallow marine sediments in the Arctic Ocean. These reservoirs are highly sensitive to climate warming, but the fate of methane released from sediments is uncertain. Here, we review the principal physical and biogeoche...
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crwiley:10.1002/lno.10307 2024-06-23T07:49:55+00:00 Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review James, Rachael H. Bousquet, Philippe Bussmann, Ingeborg Haeckel, Matthias Kipfer, Rolf Leifer, Ira Niemann, Helge Ostrovsky, Ilia Piskozub, Jacek Rehder, Gregor Treude, Tina Vielstädte, Lisa Greinert, Jens 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lno.10307 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Flno.10307 https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lno.10307 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Limnology and Oceanography volume 61, issue S1 ISSN 0024-3590 1939-5590 journal-article 2016 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10307 2024-06-06T04:24:16Z Abstract Large quantities of methane are stored in hydrates and permafrost within shallow marine sediments in the Arctic Ocean. These reservoirs are highly sensitive to climate warming, but the fate of methane released from sediments is uncertain. Here, we review the principal physical and biogeochemical processes that regulate methane fluxes across the seabed, the fate of this methane in the water column, and potential for its release to the atmosphere. We find that, at present, fluxes of dissolved methane are significantly moderated by anaerobic and aerobic oxidation of methane. If methane fluxes increase then a greater proportion of methane will be transported by advection or in the gas phase, which reduces the efficiency of the methanotrophic sink. Higher freshwater discharge to Arctic shelf seas may increase stratification and inhibit transfer of methane gas to surface waters, although there is some evidence that increased stratification may lead to warming of sub‐pycnocline waters, increasing the potential for hydrate dissociation. Loss of sea‐ice is likely to increase wind speeds and sea‐air exchange of methane will consequently increase. Studies of the distribution and cycling of methane beneath and within sea ice are limited, but it seems likely that the sea‐air methane flux is higher during melting in seasonally ice‐covered regions. Our review reveals that increased observations around especially the anaerobic and aerobic oxidation of methane, bubble transport, and the effects of ice cover, are required to fully understand the linkages and feedback pathways between climate warming and release of methane from marine sediments. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Ice permafrost Sea ice Wiley Online Library Arctic Arctic Ocean Limnology and Oceanography 61 S1 S283 S299 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Large quantities of methane are stored in hydrates and permafrost within shallow marine sediments in the Arctic Ocean. These reservoirs are highly sensitive to climate warming, but the fate of methane released from sediments is uncertain. Here, we review the principal physical and biogeochemical processes that regulate methane fluxes across the seabed, the fate of this methane in the water column, and potential for its release to the atmosphere. We find that, at present, fluxes of dissolved methane are significantly moderated by anaerobic and aerobic oxidation of methane. If methane fluxes increase then a greater proportion of methane will be transported by advection or in the gas phase, which reduces the efficiency of the methanotrophic sink. Higher freshwater discharge to Arctic shelf seas may increase stratification and inhibit transfer of methane gas to surface waters, although there is some evidence that increased stratification may lead to warming of sub‐pycnocline waters, increasing the potential for hydrate dissociation. Loss of sea‐ice is likely to increase wind speeds and sea‐air exchange of methane will consequently increase. Studies of the distribution and cycling of methane beneath and within sea ice are limited, but it seems likely that the sea‐air methane flux is higher during melting in seasonally ice‐covered regions. Our review reveals that increased observations around especially the anaerobic and aerobic oxidation of methane, bubble transport, and the effects of ice cover, are required to fully understand the linkages and feedback pathways between climate warming and release of methane from marine sediments. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
James, Rachael H. Bousquet, Philippe Bussmann, Ingeborg Haeckel, Matthias Kipfer, Rolf Leifer, Ira Niemann, Helge Ostrovsky, Ilia Piskozub, Jacek Rehder, Gregor Treude, Tina Vielstädte, Lisa Greinert, Jens |
spellingShingle |
James, Rachael H. Bousquet, Philippe Bussmann, Ingeborg Haeckel, Matthias Kipfer, Rolf Leifer, Ira Niemann, Helge Ostrovsky, Ilia Piskozub, Jacek Rehder, Gregor Treude, Tina Vielstädte, Lisa Greinert, Jens Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review |
author_facet |
James, Rachael H. Bousquet, Philippe Bussmann, Ingeborg Haeckel, Matthias Kipfer, Rolf Leifer, Ira Niemann, Helge Ostrovsky, Ilia Piskozub, Jacek Rehder, Gregor Treude, Tina Vielstädte, Lisa Greinert, Jens |
author_sort |
James, Rachael H. |
title |
Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review |
title_short |
Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review |
title_full |
Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review |
title_fullStr |
Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the Arctic Ocean: A review |
title_sort |
effects of climate change on methane emissions from seafloor sediments in the arctic ocean: a review |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lno.10307 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Flno.10307 https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lno.10307 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Ice permafrost Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Ice permafrost Sea ice |
op_source |
Limnology and Oceanography volume 61, issue S1 ISSN 0024-3590 1939-5590 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10307 |
container_title |
Limnology and Oceanography |
container_volume |
61 |
container_issue |
S1 |
container_start_page |
S283 |
op_container_end_page |
S299 |
_version_ |
1802640643792568320 |