Since 2007, scientists have been searching to find the cause of a sudden and unexpected global rise in atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, following almost a decade in which concentrations had stayed relatively constant.
Recent studies have explored a range of possible causes. Suggestions have included a rise in oil and natural gas extraction, increased emissions from tropical wetlands or increases in emissions from growing East Asian economies.
However, a new paper by an international team of scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) investigates an alternative possibility: a rise and fall in the concentration of the substance that destroys methane in the atmosphere, the hydroxyl radical.
Lead author, Dr Matt Rigby from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry and Cabot Institute, said: "A change in the hydroxyl radical concentration would be a neat explanation for the changes in methane that we’ve seen.
"It would mean that emissions may not have increased suddenly in 2007, but rather, risen more gradually over the last couple of decades."
