Old carbon reservoirs were not important in the deglacial methane budget

Dyonisius, M. N.; Petrenko, V. V.; Smith, A. M.; Hua, Q.; Yang, B.; Schmitt, J.; Beck, J.; Seth, B.; Bock, M.; Hmiel, B.; Vimont, I.; Menking, J. A.; Shackleton, S. A.; Baggenstos, D.; Bauska, T. K.; Rhodes, R. H.; Sperlich, P.; Beaudette, R.; Harth, C.; Kalk, M.; ... (2020). Old carbon reservoirs were not important in the deglacial methane budget. Science, 367(6480), pp. 907-910. American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.1126/science.aax0504

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Permafrost and methane hydrates are large, climate-sensitive old carbon reservoirs that have the potential to emit large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as the Earth continues to warm. We present ice core isotopic measurements of methane (D14C, d13C, and dD) from the last deglaciation,
which is a partial analog for modern warming. Our results show that methane emissions from old carbon reservoirs in response to deglacial warming were small (<19 teragrams of methane per year, 95% confidence interval) and argue against similar methane emissions in response to future warming. Our results also indicate that methane emissions from biomass burning in the pre-Industrial Holocene were 22 to 56 teragrams of methane per year (95% confidence interval), which is comparable to today.

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