<i>δ</i> ¹³ C methane source signatures from tropical wetland and rice field emissions

Abstract

The atmospheric methane (CH₄) burden is rising sharply, but the causes are still not well understood. One factor of uncertainty is the importance of tropical CH₄ emissions into the global mix. Isotopic signatures of major sources remain poorly constrained, despite their usefulness in constraining the global methane budget. Here, a collection of new <i>δ</i>¹³C_CH₄ signatures is presented for a range of tropical wetlands and rice fields determined from air samples collected during campaigns from 2016 to 2020. Long-term monitoring of <i>δ</i>¹³C_CH₄ in ambient air has been conducted at the Chacaltaya observatory, Bolivia and Southern Botswana. Both long-term records are dominated by biogenic CH₄ sources, with isotopic signatures expected from wetland sources. From the longer-term Bolivian record, a seasonal isotopic shift is observed corresponding to wetland extent suggesting that there is input of relatively isotopically light CH₄ to the atmosphere during periods of reduced wetland extent. This new data expands the geographical extent and range of measurements of tropical wetland and rice <i>δ</i>¹³C_CH₄ sources and hints at significant seasonal variation in tropical wetland <i>δ</i>¹³C_CH₄ signatures which may be important to capture in future global and regional models. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)'.