Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Atmospheric science

Enigma of the recent methane budget

Nature volume 476, pages 157–158 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

The previously increasing atmospheric methane concentration has inexplicably stalled over the past three decades. This may be due to a fall in fossil-fuel emissions or to farming practices that are curtailing microbial sources. See Letters p.194 & p.198

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Changes in global atmospheric methane over the past three decades.

References

  1. Kai, F. M., Tyler, S. C., Randerson, J. T. & Blake, D. R. Nature 476, 194–197 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Aydin, M. et al. Nature 476, 198–201 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Dlugokencky, E. J. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L18803; http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL039780 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Schneising, O. et al. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 9, 443–465 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Bousquet, P. et al. Nature 443, 439–443 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Jung, M. et al. Nature 467, 951–954 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Martin Heimann is at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 07701 Jena, Germany.,

    Martin Heimann

Authors
  1. Martin Heimann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Heimann.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Heimann, M. Enigma of the recent methane budget. Nature 476, 157–158 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/476157a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/476157a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing