Recent methane surges reveal heightened emissions from tropical inundated areas
Record breaking atmospheric methane growth rates were observed in 2020 and 2021 (15.2±0.5 and 17.8±0.5 parts per billion per year), the highest since the early 1980s. Here we use an ensemble of atmospheric inversions informed by surface or satellite methane observations to infer emission changes during these two years relative to 2019. Results show global methane emissions increased by 20.3±9.9 and 24.8±3.1 teragrams per year in 2020 and 2021, dominated by heightened emissions from tropical and boreal inundated areas, aligning with rising groundwater storage and regional warming. Current process-based wetland models fail to capture the tropical emission surges revealed by atmospheric inversions, likely due to inaccurate representation of wetland extents and associated methane emissions. Our findings underscore the critical role of tropical inundated areas in the recent methane emission surges and highlight the need to integrate multiple data streams and modeling tools for better constraining tropical wetland emissions.
Authors
- Yi Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4750-4997)
- Shushi Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5098-726X)
- Frédéric Chevallier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4327-3813)
- Bogang Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8836-7192)
- Yukio Yoshida (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3515-1488)
- Michel Ramonet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1157-1186)
- Robert J. Parker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0801-0831)
- Marielle Saunois (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3983-2931)
- Cynthia Gerlein‐Safdi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8160-6167)
- Marine Remaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9516-7633)
- Alexandra Runge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5047-0105)
- Yi Xi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2654-4615)
- Didier Hauglustaine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4826-5118)
- Xin Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0605-6430)
- Philippe Bousquet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4444-2703)
- Gang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0489-2638)
- Benjamin Poulter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9493-8600)
- Xin Lan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6327-6950)
- Philippe Ciais (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8560-4943)
- Rona L. Thompson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9485-7176)
- Santanu Halder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2664-6809)
- Bo Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8344-3445)
- Tianjiao Pu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4850-9160)
- Zhen Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0899-1139)
- Hartmut Bösch
Institutions
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Cyprus Institute (CY)
- University of Leicester (GB)
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
- University of Bremen (DE)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
- National Institute for Environmental Studies (JP)
- Peking University (CN)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Kjeller Innovasjon (Norway) (NO)
- Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (CN)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- National Centre for Earth Observation (GB)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN)
- New York University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-12-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55266-y
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.67
Funders
- UK Research and Innovation
- Sight Research UK
- University of Leicester
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Environment
- Institut National Du Cancer
- Peking University
- Grand Équipement National De Calcul Intensif
- Natural Environment Research Council
- National Centre for Earth Observation