IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v449y2007i7160d10.1038_nature06012.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increased terrestrial methane cycling at the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum

Author

Listed:
  • Richard D. Pancost

    (Organic Geochemistry Unit, Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK)

  • David S. Steart

    (Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK)

  • Luke Handley

    (Organic Geochemistry Unit, Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK)

  • Margaret E. Collinson

    (Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK)

  • Jerry J. Hooker

    (Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK)

  • Andrew C. Scott

    (Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK)

  • Nathalie V. Grassineau

    (Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK)

  • Ian J. Glasspool

    (The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA)

Abstract

A warming event A period of global warming around 55 million years ago, the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum or PETM, has been attributed to a rapid rise in greenhouse gas levels, with dissociation of methane hydrates the likely explanation. High latitude methane emissions from terrestrial environments could have enhanced the warming effect, but until now there has been no direct evidence for an increased methane flux from wetlands. Now a geochemical analysis of the Cobham Lignite, a recently characterized series of sediments in southeast England that spans the PETM period, has provided some evidence. The sediments record a decrease in the carbon isotope values of hopanoids (a bacterial biomarker) at the onset of the warm period, consistent with a rise in numbers of methane microbes. This may have been a response to increased wetland methane production in a warmer, wetter climate, which could have acted as a positive feedback to global warming.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard D. Pancost & David S. Steart & Luke Handley & Margaret E. Collinson & Jerry J. Hooker & Andrew C. Scott & Nathalie V. Grassineau & Ian J. Glasspool, 2007. "Increased terrestrial methane cycling at the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7160), pages 332-335, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:449:y:2007:i:7160:d:10.1038_nature06012
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06012
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature06012?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Funing Sun & Wenxuan Hu & Jian Cao & Xiaolin Wang & Zhirong Zhang & Jahandar Ramezani & Shuzhong Shen, 2022. "Sustained and intensified lacustrine methane cycling during Early Permian climate warming," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, 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:nature:v:449:y:2007:i:7160:d:10.1038_nature06012. 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.