Constraints on the Late Holocene Anthropogenic Contribution to the Atmospheric Methane Budget
Bipolar Signature
Atmospheric methane has increased approximately 2.5-fold since the start of the industrial revolution, a consequence of human activity. However, a smaller and more gradual rise began around 6000 years ago, near the time when human agriculture began to develop and expand. Mitchell et al. (p. 964) present two, high-resolution ice core methane records of the past 2500 years, one from each pole. Methane emissions were primarily from the tropics, with secondary contributions from the higher latitudes where most humans lived. Thus, both natural and human sources are needed to explain the late-Holocene atmospheric methane record.
Abstract
The origin of the late preindustrial Holocene (LPIH) increase in atmospheric methane concentrations has been much debated. Hypotheses invoking changes in solely anthropogenic sources or solely natural sources have been proposed to explain the increase in concentrations. Here two high-resolution, high-precision ice core methane concentration records from Greenland and Antarctica are presented and are used to construct a high-resolution record of the methane inter-polar difference (IPD). The IPD record constrains the latitudinal distribution of emissions and shows that LPIH emissions increased primarily in the tropics, with secondary increases in the subtropical Northern Hemisphere. Anthropogenic and natural sources have different latitudinal characteristics, which are exploited to demonstrate that both anthropogenic and natural sources are needed to explain LPIH changes in methane concentration.
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Science
Volume 342 | Issue 6161
22 November 2013
22 November 2013
Copyright
Copyright © 2013, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 9 April 2013
Accepted: 23 October 2013
Published in print: 22 November 2013
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) grants 0538578, 0520523, 0944584, and 0538538; and by NASA/Oregon Space Grant Consortium grant NNG05GJ85H and the NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellowship Program, administered by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (C.B.). We thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the manuscript; B. Markle, A. Morin, B. Williams, and J. Edwards for assisting in sample preparation and analysis; T. Marik, who provided the original eight-box model code (BOSCAGE); J. Severinghaus and G. Etiope, who contributed preliminary results from their work; T. Konijnendijk, J. Van Etten, and J. Singarayer, who provided model data from their published works; the WAIS Divide Science Coordination Office at the Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV for the collection and distribution of the WAIS Divide ice core (K. Taylor, NSF grants 0230396, 0440817, 0944348, and 0944266–University of New Hampshire); NSF OPP, which funds the Ice Drilling Program Office and Ice Drilling Design and Operations group for coring activities; NSF, which funds the National Ice Core Laboratory, which curated and processed the core; Raytheon Polar Services, which provided logistics support in Antarctica; and the 109th New York Air National Guard for airlift in Antarctica. Data and description can be downloaded from the NOAA National Climate Data Center (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/paleo.html). EBAMM model code is archived with L.E.M.’s thesis (31), available online at http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/37906.
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