Old carbon reservoirs were not important in the deglacial methane budget

Permafrost and methane hydrates are large, climate-sensitive old carbon reservoirs that have the potential to emit large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as the Earth continues to warm. We present ice core isotopic measurements of methane (Δ14C, δ13C, and δD) from the last deglaciatio...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Dyonisius, M.N., Petrenko, V.V., Smith, A.M., Hua, Q., Yang, B., Schmitt, J., Beck, J., Seth, B., Bock, M., Hmiel, B., Vimont, I., Menking, J.A., Shackleton, S.A., Baggenstos, D., Bauska, T.K., Rhodes, R.H., Sperlich, P., Beaudette, R., Harth, C., Kalk, M., Brook, E.J., Fischer, H., Severinghaus, J.P., Weiss, R.F.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2020
Subjects:
Ice
Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527171/
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6480/907
Description
Summary:Permafrost and methane hydrates are large, climate-sensitive old carbon reservoirs that have the potential to emit large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as the Earth continues to warm. We present ice core isotopic measurements of methane (Δ14C, δ13C, and δD) from the last deglaciation, which is a partial analog for modern warming. Our results show that methane emissions from old carbon reservoirs in response to deglacial warming were small (<19 teragrams of methane per year, 95% confidence interval) and argue against similar methane emissions in response to future warming. Our results also indicate that methane emissions from biomass burning in the pre-Industrial Holocene were 22 to 56 teragrams of methane per year (95% confidence interval), which is comparable to today.