Natural methyl bromide and methyl chloride emissions from coastal salt marshes
Atmospheric methyl bromide (CH3Br) and methyl chloride (CH 3Cl), compounds that are involved in stratospheric ozone depletion, originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Current estimates of CH3Br and CH3Cl emissions from oceanic sources, terrestrial plants and fungi, biomass burning and...
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Published in | Nature (London) Vol. 403; no. 6767; pp. 292 - 295 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing
20.01.2000
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Atmospheric methyl bromide (CH3Br) and methyl chloride (CH
3Cl), compounds that are involved in stratospheric ozone depletion,
originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Current estimates of
CH3Br and CH3Cl emissions from oceanic sources, terrestrial
plants and fungi, biomass burning and anthropogenic inputs do not balance
their losses owing to oxidation by hydroxyl radicals, oceanic degradation,
and consumption in soils, suggesting that additional natural terrestrial sources
may be important. Here we show that CH3Br and CH
3Cl are released to the atmosphere from all vegetation zones of two
coastal salt marshes. We see very large fluxes of CH3Br and CH
3Cl per unit area: up to 42 and 570 µmol m-2 d
-1, respectively. The fluxes show large diurnal, seasonal and spatial
variabilities, but there is a strong correlation between the fluxes of CH
3Br and those of CH3Cl, with an average molar flux ratio
of roughly 1:20. If our measurements are typical of salt marshes globally,
they suggest that such ecosystems, even though they constitute less than 0.1%
of the global surface area, may produce roughly 10% of the
total fluxes of atmospheric CH3Br and CH3Cl. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
DOI: | 10.1038/35002043 |