Global Warming: Plants Make Methane
The World

The third in a three-week series of Bio Snapshots covering important new research on global warming and biodiversity.

Scientists have just learned that some plants produce methane, a major greenhouse gas.

The research could explain a puzzling discovery a year ago: high amounts of methane over tropical forests.

The new finding implies that methane from global vegetation contributes to Earth’s natural greenhouse effect. The extent to which this surprising methane source affects our post-industrial global warming is still under debate.

Researchers
Frank Keppler, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany (lead)

Paper
"Methane emissions from terrestrial plants under aerobic conditions"
Nature 439, 187-191 (12 January 2006)

Image Credits 
The world, January (Blue Marble Next Generation, satellite: NASA Terra, sensor: MODIS)
Lab (Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics)
Brazil (Don Deering, NASA/LBA Project)
Congo (J. Doremus, USAID)
Thailand (Jason Lelchuk for AMNH)
Surface methane data (satellite: Envisat, sensor: SCIAMACHY. University of Heidelberg/KNMI)

Related Science Bulletins
Global Warming: Frog Extinctions (January 30, 2006)
Global Warming: Butterflies on the Move (January 23, 2006)
Global Warming Spurs Heat Waves (December 29, 2004)
Tropical Forests in Flames  (October 1, 2004)