Reduced methane growth rate explained by decreased Northern Hemisphere microbial sources

Atmospheric methane (CH(4)) increased through much of the twentieth century, but this trend gradually weakened until a stable state was temporarily reached around the turn of the millennium, after which levels increased once more. The reasons for the slowdown are incompletely understood, with past work identifying changes in fossil fuel, wetland and agricultural sources and hydroxyl (OH) sinks as important causal factors. Here we show that the late-twentieth-century changes in the CH(4) growth rates are best explained by reduced microbial sources in the Northern Hemisphere. Our results, based on synchronous time series of atmospheric CH(4) mixing and (13)C/(12)C ratios and a two-box atmospheric model, indicate that the evolution of the mixing ratio requires no significant change in Southern Hemisphere sources between 1984 and 2005. Observed changes in the interhemispheric difference of (13)C effectively exclude reduced fossil fuel emissions as the primary cause of the slowdown. The (13)C observations are consistent with long-term reductions in agricultural emissions or another microbial source within the Northern Hemisphere. Approximately half (51 ± 18%) of the decrease in Northern Hemisphere CH(4) emissions can be explained by reduced emissions from rice agriculture in Asia over the past three decades associated with increases in fertilizer application and reductions in water use

Modelling the multiphase near-surface chemistry related to ozone depletions in polar spring

Near-total depletions of ozone have been observed in the Arctic spring since the mid1980s. The autocatalytic reaction cycles involving reactive halogens are now recognized to be of main importance for ozone depletion events in the polar boundary layer. We present sensitivity studies using the model MISTRA in the boxmodelmode on the influence of chemical species on these ozone depletion processes. In order to test the sensitivity of the chemistry under polar conditions, we compared base runs undergoing fluxes of either Br2,BrCl, or Cl2 to induce ozone depletions, with similar runs including a modification of thechemical conditions. The role of HCHO, H2O2, DMS, Cl2, C2H6, HONO, NO2, and RONO2 was investigated. Cases with elevated mixing ratios of HCHO, H2O2, DMS, Cl2, and HONO induceda shift in bromine speciation from Br/BrO to HOBr/HBr, while high mixing ratios of C2H6 induced a shift from HOBr/HBr to Br/BrO. The shifts from Br/BrO to HOBr/HBr accelerated the aerosol debromination, but also increased the total amount of deposited bromine at thesurface (mainly via increased deposition of HOBr). For all NOy species studied (HONO, NO2, RONO2) the chemistry is characterized by an increased bromine deposition on snow reducing the amount of reactive bromine in the air. Ozone is less depleted under conditions of high mixing ratios of NOx. The production of HNO3 led to the acid displacement of HCl, and the release of chlorine out of salt aerosol (Cl2 or BrCl) increased