How the Asian monsoon affects methane emissions

19 August 2014 Scientists at the University of Bristol's Cabot Institute have shown how changes in the Asian monsoon affected emissions of methane, a prominent greenhouse gas, from the Tibetan Plateau. The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled over the past century. This appears to be due to many factors, including leaks from gas wells, increased rice cultivation and the prominent role of ruminant animals in our dairy and meat industry. It could also be caused partly by climate change feedbacks on natural processes, but that remains the subject of intense investigation. The new results, published today , focus on a single wetland from the Tibetan Plateau that experienced strong climate variations over the past six thousand years. They show that during relatively dry intervals, the biomass of methane-producing microorganisms decreased while methane-consuming microorganisms apparently became more efficient. The combined result would have been less methane emission to the atmosphere.