The impact of spatially varying wetland source signatures on the atmospheric variability of δ D-CH 4

Abstract

We present the first spatially resolved distribution of the δ D-CH 4 signature of wetland methane emissions and assess its impact on atmospheric δ D-CH 4 . The δ D-CH 4 signature map is derived by relating δ D-H 2 O of precipitation to measured δ D-CH 4 of methane wetland emissions at a variety of wetland types and locations. This results in strong latitudinal variation in the wetland δ D-CH 4 source signature. When δ D-CH 4 is simulated in a global atmospheric model, little difference is found in global mean, inter-hemispheric difference and seasonal cycle if the spatially varying δ D-CH 4 source signature distribution is used instead of a globally uniform value. This is because atmospheric δ D-CH 4 is largely controlled by OH fractionation. However, we show that despite these small differences, using atmospheric records of δ D-CH 4 to infer changes in the wetland emissions distribution requires the use of the more accurate spatially varying δ D-CH 4 source signature. We find that models will only be sensitive to changes in emissions distribution if spatial information can be exploited through the spatially resolved source signatures. In addition, we also find that on a regional scale, at sites measuring excursions of δ D-CH 4 from background levels, substantial differences are simulated in atmospheric δ D-CH 4 if using spatially varying or uniform source signatures. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 1)’.