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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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1499955 2023-07-30T04:01:47+02:00 Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf Sparrow, Katy J. Kessler, John D. Southon, John R. Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn M. Ruppel, Carolyn D. Miller, John B. Lehman, Scott J. Xu, Xiaomei 2023-06-29 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1499955 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1499955 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1499955 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1499955 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES 2023 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 2023-07-11T09:31:59Z 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. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Arctic Ocean Beaufort Sea Climate change permafrost SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Arctic Arctic Ocean Science Advances 4 1 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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ftosti |
language |
unknown |
topic |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES Sparrow, Katy J. Kessler, John D. Southon, John R. Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn M. Ruppel, Carolyn D. Miller, John B. Lehman, Scott J. Xu, Xiaomei Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf |
topic_facet |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES |
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. |
author |
Sparrow, Katy J. Kessler, John D. Southon, John R. Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn M. Ruppel, Carolyn D. Miller, John B. Lehman, Scott J. Xu, Xiaomei |
author_facet |
Sparrow, Katy J. Kessler, John D. Southon, John R. Garcia-Tigreros, Fenix Schreiner, Kathryn M. Ruppel, Carolyn D. Miller, John B. Lehman, Scott J. Xu, Xiaomei |
author_sort |
Sparrow, Katy J. |
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 |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1499955 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1499955 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 |
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_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1499955 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1499955 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao4842 |
container_title |
Science Advances |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1772812537028411392 |