Recent decreases in fossil-fuel emissions of ethane and methane derived from firn air

被引:126
作者
Aydin, Murat [1 ]
Verhulst, Kristal R. [1 ]
Saltzman, Eric S. [1 ]
Battle, Mark O. [2 ]
Montzka, Stephen A. [3 ]
Blake, Donald R. [1 ]
Tang, Qi [1 ]
Prather, Michael J. [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Calif Irvine, Dept Earth Syst Sci, Irvine, CA 92697 USA
[2] Bowdoin Coll, Dept Phys & Astron, Brunswick, ME 04011 USA
[3] Natl Ocean & Atmospher Adm, Earth Syst Res Labs, Global Monitoring Div, Boulder, CO 80305 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
VARIABILITY; BUDGET;
D O I
10.1038/nature10352
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Methane and ethane are the most abundant hydrocarbons in the atmosphere and they affect both atmospheric chemistry and climate. Both gases are emitted from fossil fuels and biomass burning, whereas methane (CH4) alone has large sources from wetlands, agriculture, landfills and waste water. Here we use measurements in firn (perennial snowpack) air from Greenland and Antarctica to reconstruct the atmospheric variability of ethane (C2H6) during the twentieth century. Ethane levels rose from early in the century until the 1980s, when the trend reversed, with a period of decline over the next 20 years. We find that this variability was primarily driven by changes in ethane emissions from fossil fuels; these emissions peaked in the 1960s and 1970s at 14-16 teragrams per year (1 Tg = 10(12) g) and dropped to 8-10 Tg yr(-1) by the turn of the century. The reduction in fossil-fuel sources is probably related to changes in light hydrocarbon emissions associated with petroleum production and use. The ethane-based fossil-fuel emission history is strikingly different from bottom-up estimates of methane emissions from fossil-fuel use(1,2), and implies that the fossil-fuel source of methane started to decline in the 1980s and probably caused the late twentieth century slow-down in the growth rate of atmospheric methane(3,4).
引用
收藏
页码:198 / 201
页数:4
相关论文
共 30 条
[1]   Methane carbon isotope effects caused by atomic chlorine in the marine boundary layer: Global model results compared with Southern Hemisphere measurements [J].
Allan, W. ;
Struthers, H. ;
Lowe, D. C. .
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 2007, 112 (D4)
[2]   Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning [J].
Andreae, MO ;
Merlet, P .
GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, 2001, 15 (04) :955-966
[3]  
[Anonymous], CLIMATE CHANGE 2001
[4]   Post-coring entrapment of modern air in some shallow ice cores collected near the firn-ice transition: evidence from CFC-12 measurements in Antarctic firn air and ice cores [J].
Aydin, M. ;
Montzka, S. A. ;
Battle, M. O. ;
Williams, M. B. ;
De Bruyn, W. J. ;
Butler, J. H. ;
Verhulst, K. R. ;
Tatum, C. ;
Gun, B. K. ;
Plotkin, D. A. ;
Hall, B. D. ;
Saltzman, E. S. .
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS, 2010, 10 (11) :5135-5144
[5]   Feasibility of reconstructing paleoatmospheric records of selected alkanes, methyl halides, and sulfur gases from Greenland ice cores [J].
Aydin, M. ;
Williams, M. B. ;
Saltzman, E. S. .
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 2007, 112 (D7)
[6]  
Barns D. W., 1990, TR047 US DEP COMM NA
[7]   Atmospheric gas concentrations over the past century measured in air from firn at the South Pole [J].
Battle, M ;
Bender, M ;
Sowers, T ;
Tans, PP ;
Butler, JH ;
Elkins, JW ;
Ellis, JT ;
Conway, T ;
Zhang, N ;
Lang, P ;
Clarke, AD .
NATURE, 1996, 383 (6597) :231-235
[8]   TROPOZ II: Global distributions and budgets of methane and light hydrocarbons [J].
Boissard, C ;
Bonsang, B ;
Kanakidou, M ;
Lambert, G .
JOURNAL OF ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY, 1996, 25 (02) :115-148
[9]   Contribution of anthropogenic and natural sources to atmospheric methane variability [J].
Bousquet, P. ;
Ciais, P. ;
Miller, J. B. ;
Dlugokencky, E. J. ;
Hauglustaine, D. A. ;
Prigent, C. ;
Van der Werf, G. R. ;
Peylin, P. ;
Brunke, E. -G. ;
Carouge, C. ;
Langenfelds, R. L. ;
Lathiere, J. ;
Papa, F. ;
Ramonet, M. ;
Schmidt, M. ;
Steele, L. P. ;
Tyler, S. C. ;
White, J. .
NATURE, 2006, 443 (7110) :439-443
[10]   Observational constraints on recent increases in the atmospheric CH4 burden [J].
Dlugokencky, E. J. ;
Bruhwiler, L. ;
White, J. W. C. ;
Emmons, L. K. ;
Novelli, P. C. ;
Montzka, S. A. ;
Masarie, K. A. ;
Lang, P. M. ;
Crotwell, A. M. ;
Miller, J. B. ;
Gatti, L. V. .
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 2009, 36