Methane Emissions: Warming in the Arctic is intensifying methane emissions, contributing to a vicious feedback loop that could accelerate climate change even more, according to a new study published May 7 in Nature.

The paper's co-author, Xin (Lindsay) Lan, a climate scientist at CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), has observed a rapid increase in atmospheric methane levels in recent years.

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 methane-emitting microbes to thrive, leading to higher methane emissions which in turn could accelerate warming further.

“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 team also found that levels of atmospheric hydroxyl (OH) radicals—molecules that help remove methane from the atmosphere—have increased by 10% since 1984. This suggested that previous methane estimates might have underestimated both how much methane the atmosphere removed and how much has been emitted. Newswise/SP