Open AccessEnhanced Methane Emissions during Amazonian Drought by Biomass Burning
Author(s) -
Makoto Saito,
Heon-Sook Kim,
Akihiko Ito,
Tatsuya Yokota,
Shamil Maksyutov
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0166039
Subject(s) - methane , atmospheric methane , amazon rainforest , amazonian , environmental science , biomass burning , atmospheric sciences , methane emissions , biomass (ecology) , climatology , meteorology , geography , ecology , geology , oceanography , aerosol , biology
The Amazon is a significant source of atmospheric methane, but little is known about the source response to increasing drought severity and frequency. We investigated satellite observations of atmospheric column-averaged methane for the 2010 drought and subsequent 2011 wet year in the Amazon using an atmospheric inversion scheme. Our analysis indicates an increase in atmospheric methane over the southern Amazon region during the drought, representing an increase in annual emissions relative to the wet year. We attribute the increase to emissions from biomass burning driven by intense drought, combined with carbon monoxide showing seasonal variations corresponding to methane variations. We show that there is probably a strong correspondence between drought and methane emissions in the Amazon.