Methane ebullition and diffusion from northern ponds and lakes are regulated by the interaction betw

This year I published a paper in Limnology and Oceanography using methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission data from a series of lakes and ponds in Quebec. We found that while CO2 emissions remain low and fairly constant with temperature in all lakes, it appears that CH4 emissions, particularly ebullitive/bubbling emissions, are temperature sensitive and that sensitivity is enhanced in higher nutrient and more productive (i.e., eutrophic) systems. This is nicely illustrated in the figure below where you can see that CH4 bubbling and diffusion are more exponentially related to temperature in the right-hand figure with almost four times as high emissions than those in the low nutrient systems. Seeing as population pressures worldwide tend to result in increased nutrient flow into inland waters, for example from agriculture and urban runoff, these findings suggest that as systems become more eutrophic that they will also become greater CH4 emitters. Trends such as this means that inland waters may become greater sources of greenhouse gases, particularly of CH4 which has a higher global warming potential than CO2, and ultimately play an even more critical role in global environmental change and the global carbon cycle than they already do. [DelSontro et al. (2016) Methane ebullition and diffusion from northern ponds and lakes regulated by the interaction between temperature and system productivity. L&O doi: 10.1002/lno.10335