Methane workshop

Methane cycling in northern forests

photo by Dave Hollinger

Understanding the drivers and magnitudes of CH₄ source-sink transitions in climate sensitive ecosystems

Aug 14 – Aug 16, 2024 at the University of Maine, Orono, and Howland Research Forest, Maine

The workshop had two overarching goals: to gather a community of experts, and to identify the state of knowledge and how to improve data acquisition and models.

In-person attendees of the workshop pose for a group photo after day two’s presentations. From left: Youmi Oh, Eric Davidson, Jonathan Gewirtzman, Teri O'Meara, Xiaofeng Xu, Shawn Fraver, George Burba, Marcia Macedo, Debjani Sihi, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Avni Malhotra, Jenny Watts, Dana Kahn, Luke Schiferl, Zoe Read, Jackie Matthes, Sajjan Heera, Zoë Dietrich, Chris Hettwer, Roel Ruzol, Andrew Ouimette, Danielle Potocek, Kathleen Savage, Ruth Varner, Elchin Jafrov. Photo by Kaeli Bennett.

Community of experts

We brought together scientists working on various aspects of the forest carbon cycle to improve knowledge of the patterns, drivers, processes, and feedbacks regulating CH₄ production and oxidation, and ultimately net CH₄ uptake (or emission, depending on environmental and microbial conditions).

Participants included field scientists, microbial ecologists, and modelers (machine learning and process models). We also included technology experts to advise on the state-of-science for high frequency greenhouse gas assessments (including EC and chamber-based approaches, and other emerging technologies).

Data acquisition and models

The workshop activities aimed to identify the current state of knowledge regarding the community’s understanding of CH₄ uptake, including the biogeochemical regulators driving this process as observed through field and lab observations. As part of this effort, we facilitated knowledge sharing regarding the current state of the science. We also identified limitations within the current network of observations, and in the ability of models to represent spatiotemporal patterns of CH₄ production vs oxidation.

As a community, we identified opportunities to reduce these knowledge gaps through integrated approaches that bring together multiple disciplines. We will share our findings with the science community through a Perspectives piece that we will submit to Nature Communications or a similar journal.