Recent analyses of ice core methane
concentrations have suggested that methane emissions from wetlands were the
primary driver for prehistoric changes in atmospheric methane. However, these
data conflict as to the location of wetlands, magnitude of emissions, and the
environmental controls on methane oxidation. The flux of other reactive trace
gases to the atmosphere also controls apparent atmospheric methane
concentrations because these compounds compete for the hydroxyl radical (OH),
which is the primary atmospheric sink for methane. In a series of coupled
biosphere-atmosphere chemistry-climate modelling experiments, we simulate the
methane and biogenic volatile organic compound emissions from the terrestrial
biosphere from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to present. Using an atmospheric
chemistry-climate model, we simulate the atmospheric concentrations of methane,
the hydroxyl radical, and numerous other reactive trace gas species. Over the
past 21,000 years methane emissions from wetlands increased slightly to the end
of the Pleistocene, but then decreased again, reaching levels at the
preindustrial Holocene that were similar to the LGM.
Author: Jed O. Kaplan, Gerd Folberth, and Didier A. Hauglustaine (jed dot kaplan at ips dot unibe dot ch)
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