M. Aslam K. Khalil

Inventorying emissions from nature in Europe

As part of the work of the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations Task Force on Emission Inventories, a new set of guidelines has been developed for assessing the emissions of sulphur, nitrogen oxides, NH3, CH4, and nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) from biogenic and other natural sources in Europe. This paper gives the background to these guidelines, describes the sources, and gives our recommended methodologies for estimating emissions. We have assembled land use and other statistics from European or national compilations and present emission estimates for the various natural/biogenic source categories based on these. Total emissions from nature derived here amount to ∼1.1 Tg S yr−1, 6–8 Tg CH4 yr−1, 70 Gg NH3 (as N) yr−1, and 13 Tg NMVOC yr−1. Estimates of biogenic NO x emissions cover a wide range, from 140 to 1500 Gg NO x (as N) yr−1. In terms of relative contribution to total European emissions for different pollutants, then NMVOC from forests and vegetation are clearly the most important emissions source. Biogenic NO x emissions (although heavily influenced by nitrogen inputs from anthropogenic activities) are very important if the higher estimates are reliable. CH4 from wetlands and sulphur from volcanoes are also significant emissions in the European budgets. On a global scale, European biogenic emissions are not significant, a consequence of the climate and size (7% of global land area) of Europe and of the destruction of natural ecosystems since prehistoric times. However, for assessing local budgets and for photochemical oxidant modeling, natural/biogenic emissions can play an important role. The most important contributor in this regard is undoubtedly forest VOC emissions, although this paper also indicates that NMVOC emissions from nonforested areas also need to be further evaluated. This paper was originally conceived as a contribution to the collection of papers arising as a result of the Workshop on Biogenic Hydrocarbons in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer, August 24–27, 1997. (Several papers arising from this workshop have been published in Journal of Geophysical Research, 103(D19) 1998.)

Global Methan Emissions From Wetlands, Rice Paddies, and Lakes

The current concentration of atmospheric methane is 1774±1.8 parts per billion, and it accounts for 18% of total greenhouse gas radiative forcing [Forster et al., 2007]. Atmospheric methane is 22 times more effective, on a per-unit-mass basis, than carbon dioxide in absorbing long-wave radiation on a 100-year time horizon, and it plays an important role in atmospheric ozone chemistry (e.g., in the presence of nitrous oxides, tropospheric methane oxidation will lead to the formation of ozone). Wetlands are a large source of atmospheric methane, Arctic lakes have recently been recognized as a major source [e.g., Walter et al., 2006], and anthropogenic activities—such as rice agriculture—also make a considerable contribution.

Atmospheric methane isotopic record favors fossil sources flat in 1980s and 1990s with recent increase

Significance There is no scientific consensus on the drivers of the atmospheric methane growth rate over the past three decades. Here, we report carbon and hydrogen isotopic measurements of atmospheric methane in archived air samples collected 1977–1998, and modeling of these with more contemporary data to infer changes in methane sources over the period 1984–2009. We present strong evidence that methane emissions from fossil fuel sectors were approximately constant in the 1980s and 1990s but increased significantly between 2000 and 2009. This finding challenges recent conclusions based on atmospheric ethane that fugitive fossil fuel emissions fell during much of this period. Emissions from other anthropogenic sources also increased, but were partially offset by reductions in wetland and fire emissions. Observations of atmospheric methane (CH4) since the late 1970s and measurements of CH4 trapped in ice and snow reveal a meteoric rise in concentration during much of the twentieth century. Since 1750, levels of atmospheric CH4 have more than doubled to current globally averaged concentration near 1,800 ppb. During the late 1980s and 1990s, the CH4 growth rate slowed substantially and was near or at zero between 1999 and 2006. There is no scientific consensus on the drivers of this slowdown. Here, we report measurements of the stable isotopic composition of atmospheric CH4 (13C/12C and D/H) from a rare air archive dating from 1977 to 1998. Together with more modern records of isotopic atmospheric CH4, we performed a time-dependent retrieval of methane fluxes spanning 25 y (1984–2009) using a 3D chemical transport model. This inversion results in a 24 [18, 27] Tg y−1 CH4 increase in fugitive fossil fuel emissions since 1984 with most of this growth occurring after year 2000. This result is consistent with some bottom-up emissions inventories but not with recent estimates based on atmospheric ethane. In fact, when forced with decreasing emissions from fossil fuel sources our inversion estimates unreasonably high emissions in other sources. Further, the inversion estimates a decrease in biomass-burning emissions that could explain falling ethane abundance. A range of sensitivity tests suggests that these results are robust.

Soil-Atmosphere exchange of radiatively and chemically active gases

Exchanges between the soils and the atmosphere may control or significantly affect the global budgets of many environmentally important trace gases, both natural and man-made. Flux measurements, taken in several ecosystems, show that soils are a substantial source of chloroform (8 ± 4 μg/m2/d) and a sink for methyl chloride (-10-3+6 μg/m2/d). The known sources and sinks of these gases are insufficient to explain the observed concentrations. Our findings will help to balance the global budget of chloroform but may put the budget of methyl chloride further out of balance. We also found, consistent with previous research, that soils are a substantial source of nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide and take up hydrogen and methane. The uptake of man-made chlorocarbons was observed, but the rates are small. Observed fluxes of non-methane hydrocarbons showed few patterns except that soils may be a source of ethane and butane.

Seasonal Production and Emission of Methane from Rice Fields, Final Report

B 139 - Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas regarded second only to carbon dioxide in its ability to cause global warming. Methane is important because of its relatively fast increase, and also because it is, per molecule, some 60 times more effective than carbon dioxide in causing global warming. The largest present anthropogenic sources of methane are rice fields, cattle and biomass burning. The global emissions from these sources are still not well known. In the middle 1980s there were few available data on methane emissions from rice fields leading to estimates of a global source between 100-280 Tg/yr. Extensive worldwide research during the last decade has shown that the global emissions from rice fields are more likely to be in the range of 30-80Tg/yr. While this work has led to a substantial reduction in the estimated emissions, the uncertainty is still quite large, and seriously affects our ability to include methane in integrated assessments for future climate change and environmental management.China dominated estimates of methane emissions from rice fields because it was, and is, the largest producer of rice, and major increases in rice production had taken place in the country over the last several decades. This report summarizes the work in Sichuan Province, China, in each of the following areas: the design of the experiment; the main results on methane emissions from rice fields, delineating the factors controlling emissions; production of methane in the soil; a survey of water management practices in sample of counties in Sichuan province; and results of ambient measurements including data from the background continental site. B139