Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf.
In response to warming climate, methane can be released to Arctic Ocean sediment and waters from thawing subsea permafrost and decomposing methane hydrates. However, it is unknown whether methane derived from this sediment storehouse of frozen ancient carbon reaches the atmosphere. We quantified the...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9z59721w 2023-10-25T01:35:40+02:00 Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. Sparrow, Katy Kessler, John Southon, John Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn Ruppel, Carolyn Miller, John Lehman, Scott Xu, Xiaomei 2018-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9z59721w unknown eScholarship, University of California qt9z59721w https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9z59721w public Science Advances, vol 4, iss 1 article 2018 ftcdlib 2023-09-25T18:04:56Z In response to warming climate, methane can be released to Arctic Ocean sediment and waters from thawing subsea permafrost and decomposing methane hydrates. However, it is unknown whether methane derived from this sediment storehouse of frozen ancient carbon reaches the atmosphere. We quantified the fraction of methane derived from ancient sources in shelf waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea, a region that has both permafrost and methane hydrates and is experiencing significant warming. Although the radiocarbon-methane analyses indicate that ancient carbon is being mobilized and emitted as methane into shelf bottom waters, surprisingly, we find that methane in surface waters is principally derived from modern-aged carbon. We report that at and beyond approximately the 30-m isobath, ancient sources that dominate in deep waters contribute, at most, 10 ± 3% of the surface water methane. These results suggest that even if there is a heightened liberation of ancient carbon-sourced methane as climate change proceeds, oceanic oxidation and dispersion processes can strongly limit its emission to the atmosphere. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Climate change permafrost University of California: eScholarship Arctic Arctic Ocean |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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description |
In response to warming climate, methane can be released to Arctic Ocean sediment and waters from thawing subsea permafrost and decomposing methane hydrates. However, it is unknown whether methane derived from this sediment storehouse of frozen ancient carbon reaches the atmosphere. We quantified the fraction of methane derived from ancient sources in shelf waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea, a region that has both permafrost and methane hydrates and is experiencing significant warming. Although the radiocarbon-methane analyses indicate that ancient carbon is being mobilized and emitted as methane into shelf bottom waters, surprisingly, we find that methane in surface waters is principally derived from modern-aged carbon. We report that at and beyond approximately the 30-m isobath, ancient sources that dominate in deep waters contribute, at most, 10 ± 3% of the surface water methane. These results suggest that even if there is a heightened liberation of ancient carbon-sourced methane as climate change proceeds, oceanic oxidation and dispersion processes can strongly limit its emission to the atmosphere. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sparrow, Katy Kessler, John Southon, John Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn Ruppel, Carolyn Miller, John Lehman, Scott Xu, Xiaomei |
spellingShingle |
Sparrow, Katy Kessler, John Southon, John Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn Ruppel, Carolyn Miller, John Lehman, Scott Xu, Xiaomei Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. |
author_facet |
Sparrow, Katy Kessler, John Southon, John Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn Ruppel, Carolyn Miller, John Lehman, Scott Xu, Xiaomei |
author_sort |
Sparrow, Katy |
title |
Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. |
title_short |
Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. |
title_full |
Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. |
title_fullStr |
Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf. |
title_sort |
limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the u.s. beaufort sea shelf. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9z59721w |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Climate change permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Climate change permafrost |
op_source |
Science Advances, vol 4, iss 1 |
op_relation |
qt9z59721w https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9z59721w |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1780730740094271488 |