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Emissions of anaerobically produced methane by trees
Author(s) -
Rice Andrew L.,
Butenhoff Christopher L.,
Shearer Martha J.,
Teama Doaa,
Rosenstiel Todd N.,
Khalil M. Aslam K.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2009gl041565
Subject(s) - environmental science , atmosphere (unit) , greenhouse gas , mesocosm , atmospheric sciences , methane , deciduous , carbon fibers , carbon source , isotopes of carbon , environmental chemistry , chemistry , botany , ecology , ecosystem , mathematics , biology , meteorology , total organic carbon , geology , physics , biochemistry , algorithm , composite number
Recent studies indicate that plants may be a previously overlooked but significant source of atmospheric CH 4 , though there is considerable disagreement on the mechanism of production. Our work sought to verify that woody deciduous trees grown under inundated conditions had the capacity for transporting CH 4 from an anaerobic subsurface to the atmosphere and to consider if such a source could be important globally. Here, we report results from a greenhouse mesocosm study that indicate significant emissions of anaerobically produced CH 4 transmitted to the atmosphere through broadleaf riparian tree species grown under flooded conditions. Using a leaf area normalized mean emission rate (0.7 ± 0.3 μ g cm −2 hr −1 ), results were scaled globally for flooded forest regions and estimated to be 60 ± 20 Tg year −1 , ∼10% of the global CH 4 source. The carbon isotopic composition of CH 4 emitted was found to be significantly enriched compared with expectations ( δ 13 C ∼ −54‰) and provided an important isotopic constraint on the global source which coincides with the mean of the globally scaled greenhouse‐based estimate.