Environment Counts | Limited monitoring of methane emissions in the Arctic :

Methane is some 25 times as strong as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Arctic methane emissions, which vary by a factor of two more from year to year, come from several sources. Wetlands at high latitudes are the primary source, but methane is also released into the atmosphere from “hotspots” such as deep sea methane clathrates in the Laptev sea or from decomposing organic material in thawing permafrost. Incidents of the sudden releases of methane have been observed and it has been suggested that as the climate warms there is a risk of reaching a tipping point that could trigger a massive release of methane from these sources that could accelerate climate warming. At the present time there is limited monitoring of methane emissions and the processes that lead to methane emissions are poorly understood. Nature 509, 279–281(15 May 2014) doi:10.1038/509279a