Global methane emissions from rivers and streams

Abstract Methane (CH 4 ) is a potent greenhouse gas and its concentrations have tripled in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. There is evidence that global warming has increased CH 4 emissions from freshwater ecosystems 1,2 , providing positive feedback to the global climate. Yet for rivers and streams, the controls and the magnitude of CH 4 emissions remain highly uncertain 3,4 . Here we report a spatially explicit global estimate of CH 4 emissions from running waters, accounting for 27.9 (16.7–39.7) Tg CH 4 per year and roughly equal in magnitude to those of other freshwater systems 5,6 . Riverine CH 4 emissions are not strongly temperature dependent, with low average activation energy ( E M =…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 2025982, DEB-2025982, NTL LTER
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet

  Award: 2021-06667
• SL
  Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2021YFC3200401