The Arctic is warming at an accelerating pace.
The Arctic is warming at an accelerating pace. As permafrost thaws across vast areas and wildfires become more frequent, large amounts of methane (CH4) are being released. Together, these changes are reshaping the region's greenhouse-gas emissions and further intensifying climate change.
In a study published in Science on August 6, an international team led by Prof. LIU Yi from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated how CH4 emissions in Siberia are evolving under climate change, showing how atmospheric circulation promotes wildfire activity and methanogenesis and thereby drives the recent sharp rise in CH4 emissions.
Although Siberia accounts for only ~5% of global CH4 emissions, sparse observations and complex environmental conditions have made its emissions difficult to quantify, resulting in widely varied estimates. Under these conditions, researchers have long struggled to understand changes in the region's emissions and the role played by temperature, making Siberia an important source of uncertainty in the global CH4 budget.
Read More: Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
