(November 26, 2015) Global
warming will progress faster than what was previously believed. The reason is
that greenhouse gas emissions that arise naturally are also affected by
increased temperatures. This has been confirmed in a new study from Linköping
University that measures natural methane emissions.
“Everything indicates that global warming caused by humans
leads to increased natural greenhouse gas emissions. Our detailed measurements
reveal a clear pattern of greater methane emissions from lakes at higher
temperatures,” says Sivakiruthika Natchimuthu, doctoral student at Tema
Environmental Change, Linköping University, Sweden, and lead author of the
latest publication on this topic from her group.
Over the past two years the research team at Linköping
University has contributed to numerous studies that all point in the same
direction: natural greenhouse gas emissions will increase when the climate gets
warmer. In the latest study the researchers examined the emissions of the
greenhouse gas methane from three lakes. The effects were clear and the methane
emissions increased exponentially with temperature. Their measurements show
that a temperature increase from 15 to 20 degrees Celsius almost doubled the
methane level. The findings was recently published in Limnology and
Oceanography.