Closing the Gaps in the Budgets of Methane and Nitrous Oxide

Technical Report · Fri Nov 22 04:00:00 EST 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1107643· OSTI ID:1107643

Khalil, Aslam ^[1]; Rice, Andrew ^[2]; Rasmussen, Reinhold ^[2]

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1. Portland State Univ., OR (United States); Portland State University
2. Portland State Univ., OR (United States)

Together methane and nitrous oxide contribute almost 40% of the estimated increase in radiative forcing caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases during the last 250 years (IPCC, 2007). These increases are attributed to human activities. Since the emissions of these gases are from biogenic sources and closely associated with living things in the major terrestrial ecosystems of the world, climate change is expected to cause feedbacks that may further increase emissions even from systems normally classified as natural. Our results support the idea that while past increases of methane were driven by direct emissions from human activities, some of these have reached their limits and that the future of methane changes may be determined by feedbacks from warming temperatures. The greatly increased current focus on the arctic and the fate of the carbon frozen in its permafrost is an example of such a feedback that could exceed the direct increases caused by future human activities (Zimov et al. 2006).

• Research Organization: Portland State Univ., OR (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-08ER64515
• OSTI ID: 1107643
• Report Number(s): DOE-PSU--ER64515
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
Climate Feedbacks
Greenhouse Gases
Methane
Nitrous Oxide
Rice Agriculture