Study: Rapid Methane Increase Poss. From Natural Sources, Particularly Remote Arctic Soils Now Melting As Warming Grows
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To get a clearer picture, Lan and her team analyzed seasonal fluctuations in atmospheric methane levels over the past four decades. They found that methane's seasonal amplitude—the difference between peak and lowest methane levels within a year—has been decreasing in northern high-latitude regions, including the Arctic.
Using computer models, the team showed that this trend since the 1980s is largely a result of increased methane emissions from wetlands. Increased precipitation in the Arctic has expanded the region's wetlands by 25% during the warmer months. Rising temperatures have also been melting some of the perpetually frozen soil layer deep underground, known as permafrost, in summer.
The melted, waterlogged soils have provided ideal conditions for archaea to thrive, leading to higher methane emissions which in turn could accelerate warming further. Scientists have long warned about such climate feedback loops, but the precise scale and speed of these effects remain uncertain. Lan said this new study added another piece of evidence that natural methane emissions have already been responding to a warming climate.
"This study, along with a few previous studies, has provided indirect evidence on potential climate feedback on methane emissions, which would be beyond our ability to control directly," Lan said. The sharp increase in atmospheric methane and its climate feedback effects since 2007 resemble Earth's most dramatic warming events that brought past ice ages to an end, according to Lan's previous research.
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https://phys.org/news/2025-05-vicious-methane-emissions-wetlands-exacerbate.html