Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/J00748X/1
TERRESTRIAL METHANE CYCLING DURING PALAEOGENE GREENHOUSE CLIMATES
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor D Beerling, University of Sheffield, Animal and Plant Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Sheffield, Animal and Plant Sciences
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Palaeoenvironments
- Environmental Microbiology
- Biogeochemical Cycles
- Land - Atmosphere Interactions
- Abstract:
- Human activity has led to an increase in pCO2 and methane levels from pre-industrial times to today. While the former increase is primarily due to fossil fuel burning, the increase in methane concentrations is more complex, reflecting both direct human activity but also feedback mechanisms in the climate system related to temperature and hydrology-induced changes in methane emissions. To unravel these complex relationships, scientists are increasingly interrogating ancient climate systems. Similarly, one of the major challenges in palaeoclimate research is understanding the role of methane biogeochemistry in governing the climate of ice-free, high-pCO2 greenhouse worlds, such as during the early Paleogene (around 50Ma). The lack of proxies for methane concentrations is problematic, as methane emissions from wetlands are governed by precipitation and temperature, such that they could act as important positive or negative feedbacks on climate. In fact, the only estimates for past methane levels (pCH4) arise from our climate-biogeochemistry simulations wherein GCMs have driven a dynamic vegetation model, from which methane fluxes have been derived. These suggest that Paleogene pCH4 could have been almost 8x modern pre-industrial levels, and such values would have had a radiative forcing effect nearly equivalent to a doubling of pCO2, an impact that could have been particularly dramatic during time intervals when CO2 levels were already much higher than today's. Thus, an improved understanding of Paleogene pCH4 is crucial to understanding both how biogeochemical processes operate on a warmer Earth and understanding the climate of this important interval in Earth history. We propose to improve, expand and interrogate those model analyses using improved soil biogeochemistry algorithms, conducting model sensitivity experiments and comparing our results to proxy records. The former will provide a better, process-orientated understanding of biogenic trace gas emissions, particularly the emissions of CH4, NOx and N2O. The sensitivity experiments will focus on varying pCO2 levels and manipulation of atmospheric parameters that dictate cloud formation; together, these experiments will constrain the uncertainty in our approach. To qualitatively test these models, we will quantify lipid biomarkers and determine their carbon isotopic compositions to estimate the size of past methanogenic and methanotrophic populations; these will then be compared to a large and growing literature regarding the concentrations of these compounds/organisms in modern mires and Holocene peat. The final component of our project will be the determination of how these elevated methane (and other trace gas) concentrations served as a positive feedback on global warming. Collectively, our work will test the hypothesis that elevated pCO2, continental temperatures and precipitation during the Eocene caused increased wetland GHG emissions and atmospheric concentrations with a significant feedback on climate, missing from most modelling studies to date. This work is crucial to our understanding of greenhouse climates but such an integrated approach is not being conducted anywhere else in the world; here, it is being led by international experts in organic geochemistry, climate, vegetation and atmospheric modelling, and palaeobotany and coal petrology. It will represent a major step forward in our understanding of ancient biogeochemical cycles.
- Period of Award:
- 1 Nov 2012 - 30 Jun 2016
- Value:
- £244,127 Split Award
Authorised funds only
- NERC Reference:
- NE/J00748X/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grant (FEC)
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £244,127
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff | DI - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £1,535 | £84,447 | £7,139 | £31,658 | £114,091 | £2,133 | £3,122 |
If you need further help, please read the user guide.