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Recent surge in methane emissions driven by microbes: Study

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Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas several times more potent than carbon dioxide, increased at record-high rates between 2020 and 2022. A new study suggests that rather than fossil fuels, microbes were responsible for this recent methane surge. Until the early 2000s, fossil fuel production drove much of the increase in atmospheric methane, study lead author Sylvia Michel, senior scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, U.S., told Mongabay by email. Fossil fuels “are still a very large part of the methane budget,” she said. “They just aren’t the cause of the recent increase.” After a short pause in growth from 1999 to 2006, atmospheric methane concentrations have risen rapidly. Between 2008 and 2014, methane concentrations increased by around 5 parts per billion (ppb) per year, then by 9 ppb per year between 2014 and 2020. From 2020-2022, though, methane went up by around 15 ppb per year. To find out where that latest surge came from, the study’s researchers analyzed methane in air samples collected from 22 sites globally. They ran the samples through a specialized spectrometer, and used a simple computer model to simulate and track the likely source of the emissions. In the end, the study found microbial sources have been driving increases in methane emissions since 2006, with their contribution especially high since 2020. “We were surprised by how much the 2020-2022 methane increase could be attributed to microbial sources,” Michel said. These sources include single-celled Archaea, microorganisms that live in oxygen-free environments like wetlands, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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