Rising temperatures could tip the scale in an underground battle that has raged for millennia.
Rising temperatures could tip the scale in an underground battle that has raged for millennia. In the soils of Earth’s wetlands, microbes are fighting to both produce and consume the powerful greenhouse gas methane. But if the Earth gets too hot, a key way wetlands clamp down on methane could be at risk, according to a Smithsonian study published April 23.
Methane is responsible for roughly 19% of global warming, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. And while wetlands are champions at removing carbon dioxide (CO2)—the more abundant greenhouse gas—they are also the world’s largest natural source of methane. As nations set targets to bring down methane emitted from human activity, it is crucial to understand how much methane wetlands emit naturally—and how much more they could emit in the future.
“If there is a large amount of methane emissions from wetlands, and if we don’t know anything about that, then our carbon reduction target for mitigating climate change is going to be off track in the future,” said lead author Jaehyun Lee. Lee, who now works at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, did the study while a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
Read more at Smithsonian
Image: Jaehyun Lee collects a porewater sample in the SMARTX experiment, at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland. (Photo Credit: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)
