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Differences of the atmospheric CH 4 concentration between the Arctic and Antarctic regions in pre‐industrial/pre‐agricultural era
Author(s) -
Nakazawa T.,
Machida T.,
Tanaka M.,
Fujii Y.,
Aoki S.,
Watanabe O.
Publication year - 1993
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 - 10.1029/93gl00776
Subject(s) - southern hemisphere , northern hemisphere , latitude , arctic , ice core , agriculture , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , the arctic , climatology , oceanography , physical geography , geology , geography , archaeology , geodesy
Air samples in ice cores from Site J, Greenland and Mizuho, Antarctica were analyzed to reconstruct the past concentrations of atmospheric CH 4 at northern and southern high latitudes. The results showed that the CH 4 concentrations were fairly constant in the pre‐industrial/pre‐agricultural era covered by this study, average values being 756±10 and 701±10 ppbv for the Site J and Mizuho cores, respectively, and then increased significantly with time. The pre‐industrial/pre‐agricultural levels of the CH 4 concentration obtained from the Site J core were higher by 55±20 ppbv than those from the Mizuho core, suggesting that natural CH 4 sources had been stronger in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere.