Limited impact of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on variability and growth rate of atmospheric methane

Schaefer, Hinrich; Smale, Dan; Nichol, Sylvia E.; Bromley, Tony M.; Brailsford, Gordon W.; Martin, Ross J.; Moss, Rowena; Englund Michel, Sylvia; White, James W. C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6371-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6371-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6371-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 21

Research article

|

30 Oct 2018

Research article |

| 30 Oct 2018

Limited impact of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on variability and growth rate of atmospheric methane

Hinrich Schaefer, Dan Smale, Sylvia E. Nichol, Tony M. Bromley, Gordon W. Brailsford, Ross J. Martin, Rowena Moss, Sylvia Englund Michel, and James W. C. White

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Oct 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 24 Jul 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of Schaefer et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 07 Aug 2018
- AC1: 'Response to Refreree #1', Hinrich Schaefer, 24 Sep 2018
RC2: 'Review of Schaefer et al.', Joe Melton, 28 Aug 2018
- AC2: 'Response to Refreree #2, Joe Melton', Hinrich Schaefer, 24 Sep 2018
SC1: 'The role of transport and loss?', Alexander Turner, 28 Aug 2018
- AC3: 'Response to SC1 by Alex Turner', Hinrich Schaefer, 24 Sep 2018
SC2: 'short comments', Zhen Zhang, 06 Sep 2018
- AC4: 'Response to SC2 by Zhen Zhang', Hinrich Schaefer, 24 Sep 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (24 Sep 2018) by Fortunat Joos

AR by Hinrich Schaefer on behalf of the Authors (27 Sep 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (08 Oct 2018) by Fortunat Joos

AR by Hinrich Schaefer on behalf of the Authors (12 Oct 2018)

Short summary

To quantify the impact of El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate events on the methane budget, we studied the correlation between CH₄ time series and ENSO indices. We find that ENSO explains less than one-third of the variability in CH₄ levels and their stable carbon isotopes, which constrain the source processes of emissions. ENSO forcing of the CH₄ cycle is too small, episodic, and regional to force atmospheric trends, which are more likely caused by agricultural or industrial emissions.