ArticleNature2012
Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica.
Article in Nature, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 233 citations in OpenAlex.
- Thermogenic methane beneath the North Greenland Ice Sheet revealed by isotopic and geological evidence.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Bacteriophages in Antarctic subglacial lakes reveal novel biodiversity and biogeochemical potential.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Antarctic seep emergence and discovery in the shallow coastal environment.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Oxidation is a potentially significant methane sink in land-terminating glacial runoff.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- CHScientific reports · 2024Article
- Methylotrophic Communities Associated with a Greenland Ice Sheet Methane Release Hotspot.Microbial ecology · 2023Article
- Interactions among microorganisms functionally active for electron transfer and pollutant degradation in natural environments.Eco-Environment & Health · 2023Review
- Biogeography of Southern Ocean prokaryotes: a comparison of the Indian and Pacific sectors.Environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Dynamic and history of methane seepage in the SW Barents Sea: new insights from Leirdjupet Fault Complex.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Riddles in the cold: Antarctic endemism and microbial succession impact methane cycling in the Southern Ocean.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Early Last Interglacial ocean warming drove substantial ice mass loss from Antarctica.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Ice sheets matter for the global carbon cycle.Nature communications · 2019Review
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- Article
- Direct isotopic evidence of biogenic methane production and efflux from beneath a temperate glacier.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- First observation of direct methane emission to the atmosphere from the subglacial domain of the Greenland Ice Sheet.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Article
- Minimal geological methane emissions during the Younger Dryas-Preboreal abrupt warming event.Nature · 2017Article
- Potential Activity of Subglacial Microbiota Transported to Anoxic River Delta Sediments.Microbial ecology · 2017Article
- Evidence for a palaeo-subglacial lake on the Antarctic continental shelf.Nature communications · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Once thought to be devoid of life, the ice-covered parts of Antarctica are now known to be a reservoir of metabolically active microbial cells and organic carbon. The potential for methanogenic archaea to support the degradation of organic carbon to methane beneath the ice, however, has not yet been evaluated. Large sedimentary basins containing marine sequences up to 14 kilometres thick and an estimated 21,000 petagrams (1 Pg equals 10(15) g) of organic carbon are buried beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. No data exist for rates of methanogenesis in sub-Antarctic marine sediments. Here we present experimental data from other subglacial environments that demonstrate the potential for overridden organic matter beneath glacial systems to produce methane. We also numerically simulate the accumulation of methane in Antarctic sedimentary basins using an established one-dimensional hydrate model and show that pressure/temperature conditions favour methane hydrate formation down to sediment depths of about 300 metres in West Antarctica and 700 metres in East Antarctica. Our results demonstrate the potential for methane hydrate accumulation in Antarctic sedimentary basins, where the total inventory depends on rates of organic carbon degradation and conditions at the ice-sheet bed. We calculate that the sub-Antarctic hydrate inventory could be of the same order of magnitude as that of recent estimates made for Arctic permafrost. Our findings suggest that the Antarctic Ice Sheet may be a neglected but important component of the global methane budget, with the potential to act as a positive feedback on climate warming during ice-sheet wastage.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.