Tundra Leaks Methane When Frozen or Thawed

"Nobody would expect to have loads of gas seeping out from a frozen environment." - Torben Christensen

Swedish researchers say they have found that Arctic tundra emits the same amount of the powerful greenhouse gas methane in winter as it does during summer.

The finding appears to contradict current belief that a warming Arctic will lead to more atmospheric methane seeping from the tundra.

Biochemist Torben Christensen and his team from Lund University made the finding by taking air samples in northeastern Greenland's Zackenberg Valley Research Station from summer well into the winter season.

They found that the levels of the greenhouse gas increased significantly as the freeze began — to a level comparable to that during the summer months.

“The assumption has always been that a frozen, snowed-under environment is not active in terms of a greenhouse effect," Christensen said. "It turns out this was a wrong assumption.”

Earlier this year, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that global methane levels began to increase in 2007 after nearly a decade of being relatively stable.

They theorized that very warm conditions in Siberia last year increased methane emissions from tundra and wetlands when bacterial emissions there surged.

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