IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-12541-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global ocean methane emissions dominated by shallow coastal waters

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Weber

    (University of Rochester)

  • Nicola A. Wiseman

    (University of Rochester
    University of California)

  • Annette Kock

    (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel)

Abstract

Oceanic emissions represent a highly uncertain term in the natural atmospheric methane (CH4) budget, due to the sparse sampling of dissolved CH4 in the marine environment. Here we overcome this limitation by training machine-learning models to map the surface distribution of methane disequilibrium (∆CH4). Our approach yields a global diffusive CH4 flux of 2–6TgCH4yr−1 from the ocean to the atmosphere, after propagating uncertainties in ∆CH4 and gas transfer velocity. Combined with constraints on bubble-driven ebullitive fluxes, we place total oceanic CH4 emissions between 6–12TgCH4yr−1, narrowing the range adopted by recent atmospheric budgets (5–25TgCH4yr−1) by a factor of three. The global flux is dominated by shallow near-shore environments, where CH4 released from the seafloor can escape to the atmosphere before oxidation. In the open ocean, our models reveal a significant relationship between ∆CH4 and primary production that is consistent with hypothesized pathways of in situ methane production during organic matter cycling.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Weber & Nicola A. Wiseman & Annette Kock, 2019. "Global ocean methane emissions dominated by shallow coastal waters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12541-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12541-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12541-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-12541-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan N. Arx & Abiel T. Kidane & Miriam Philippi & Wiebke Mohr & Gaute Lavik & Sina Schorn & Marcel M. M. Kuypers & Jana Milucka, 2023. "Methylphosphonate-driven methane formation and its link to primary production in the oligotrophic North Atlantic," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Shi-Hai Mao & Hong-Hai Zhang & Guang-Chao Zhuang & Xiao-Jun Li & Qiao Liu & Zhen Zhou & Wei-Lei Wang & Chun-Yang Li & Ke-Yu Lu & Xi-Ting Liu & Andrew Montgomery & Samantha B. Joye & Yu-Zhong Zhang & G, 2022. "Aerobic oxidation of methane significantly reduces global diffusive methane emissions from shallow marine waters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Florian Roth & Elias Broman & Xiaole Sun & Stefano Bonaglia & Francisco Nascimento & John Prytherch & Volker Brüchert & Maysoon Lundevall Zara & Märta Brunberg & Marc C. Geibel & Christoph Humborg & A, 2023. "Methane emissions offset atmospheric carbon dioxide uptake in coastal macroalgae, mixed vegetation and sediment ecosystems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Chin-Hsien Cheng & Simon A. T. Redfern, 2022. "Impact of interannual and multidecadal trends on methane-climate feedbacks and sensitivity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12541-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.