Every increase in Earth's temperature due to global warming will increase methane emissions, a gas more toxic than carbon dioxide, a new study finds

Global warming is currently a source of serious concern worldwide. While many studies have highlighted the increasing levels of carbon dioxide due to this phenomenon, a new study highlights a consequence far more hazardous. The study conducted by Princeton University researchers revealed that every degree increase in the Earth's temperature will also raise methane emissions into the atmosphere, a gas more intoxicating than carbon dioxide.

Methane is 30 times more intoxicating than carbon dioxide. In lake sediment and freshwater wetlands the gas is produced when microorganisms digest organic matter in a process known as "methanogenesis." Factors like temperature, chemical, physical and ecological aspects highly influence this process. The new discovery was made while trying to determine how Earth's systems will contribute and respond to a hotter future.

Unfortunately, scientists are not able to determine the extent of methane contribution from such a widely dispersed ecosystem that includes lakes, swamps, marshes and rice paddies. This leaves them unable to make climate projections for the future.

"The freshwater systems we talk about in our paper are an important component to the climate system," co-author Cristian Gudasz, a visiting postdoctoral research associate in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology said in a press statement. "There is more and more evidence that they have a contribution to the methane emissions. Methane produced from natural or humanmade freshwater systems will increase with temperature."

To help scientists measure methanogenesis, researchers analyzed 1,600 measurements of temperature and methane emissions from 127 freshwater ecosystems across the globe. They found that the process works best at high temperatures. Methane emissions at 0 degrees Celsius would rise 57 times higher when the temperature reached 30 degrees Celsius, the researchers reported.  

"We all want to make predictions about greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on global warming," Gudasz said. "Looking across these scales and constraining them as we have in this paper will allow us to make better predictions."

The new study was published in the journal Nature.