Thornton, BF, Prytherch, J orcid.org/0000-0003-1209-289X, Andersson, K et al. (4 more authors) (2020) Shipborne eddy covariance observations of methane fluxes constrain Arctic sea emissions. Science Advances, 6 (5). eaay7934. eaay7934-eaay7934. ISSN 2375-2548
Abstract
We demonstrate direct eddy covariance (EC) observations of methane (CH4) fluxes between the sea and atmosphere from an icebreaker in the eastern Arctic Ocean. EC-derived CH4 emissions averaged 4.58, 1.74, and 0.14 mg m−2 day−1 in the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas, respectively, corresponding to annual sea-wide fluxes of 0.83, 0.62, and 0.03 Tg year−1. These EC results answer concerns that previous diffusive emission estimates, which excluded bubbling, may underestimate total emissions. We assert that bubbling dominates sea-air CH4 fluxes in only small constrained areas: A ~100-m2 area of the East Siberian Sea showed sea-air CH4 fluxes exceeding 600 mg m−2 day−1; in a similarly sized area of the Laptev Sea, peak CH4 fluxes were ~170 mg m−2 day−1. Calculating additional emissions below the noise level of our EC system suggests total ESAS CH4 emissions of 3.02 Tg year−1, closely matching an earlier diffusive emission estimate of 2.9 Tg year−1.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC NE/K011820/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 31 Jan 2020 11:05 |
Last Modified: | 31 Jan 2020 11:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
Identification Number: | 10.1126/sciadv.aay7934 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:156269 |