16. April 2008: Methane sources over the last 30,000 years – New
insights into natural changes in atmospheric methane
concentrations Ice cores are essential for climate research,
because they represent the only archive which allows direct
measurements of atmospheric composition and greenhouse gas
concentrations in the past. Using novel isotopic studies,
scientists from the European Project for Ice Coring In
Antarctica (EPICA) were now able to identify the most important
processes responsible for changes in natural methane
concentrations over the transition from the last ice age into
our warm period. The study now published in the scientific
magazine nature shows that wetland regions emitted significantly
less methane during glacial times. In contrast methane emissions
by forest fire activity remained surprisingly constant from
glacial to interglacial times. In the current issue of Nature,
members of the EPICA team publish new insights into natural
changes in the atmospheric concentrations of the second most i