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Forest soils act as good sinks for atmospheric methane because soils are optimally moist for methanotroph activity, and the movement of gases between soil and atmosphere (soil diffusivity) is high. [73] With a lower water table, any methane in the soil has to make it past the methanotrophic bacteria before it can reach the atmosphere.
Methane's GWP 20 of 85 means that a ton of CH 4 emitted into the atmosphere creates approximately 85 times the atmospheric warming as a ton of CO 2 over a period of 20 years. [23] On a 100-year timescale, methane's GWP 100 is in the range of 28–34. Methane emissions are important as reducing them can buy time to tackle carbon emissions. [24] [25]
An important consideration in such efforts is that forests can turn from sinks to carbon sources. [42] [43] [44] In 2019 forests took up a third less carbon than they did in the 1990s, due to higher temperatures, droughts and deforestation. The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s. [45]
Earth’s second great rainforest has been largely neglected. Earth’s ‘second lung’ is under threat. Losing the Congo Basin forests would set the fight against climate change back 20 years
Some wetlands are a significant source of methane emissions [6] [7] and some are also emitters of nitrous oxide. [8] [9] Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 300 times that of carbon dioxide and is the dominant ozone-depleting substance emitted in the 21st century. [10] Wetlands can also act as a sink for greenhouse ...
A carbon sink is a type of carbon pool that has the capability to take up more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. Globally, the two most important carbon sinks are vegetation and the ocean. [3] Soil is an important carbon storage medium. Much of the organic carbon retained in the soil of agricultural areas has been depleted due to ...
An important consideration in such efforts is that forests can turn from sinks to carbon sources. [23] [24] [25] In 2019 forests took up a third less carbon than they did in the 1990s, due to higher temperatures, droughts and deforestation. The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s. [26]
Methane has a limited atmospheric lifetime, about 10 years, due to substantial methane sinks. The primary methane sink is atmospheric oxidation, from hydroxyl radicals (~90% of the total sink) and chlorine radicals (0-5% of the total sink). The rest is consumed by methanotrophs and other methane-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in soils (~5%). [5]