Atmospheric Methane Concentration Allows Estimating Natural Gas Leaks in Heating Systems in Tandil, Argentina.

Residential use of natural gas (NG) for heating and cooking purposes may contribute significantly to CH emissions to the atmosphere. To analyze whether the NG demand in the city of Tandil, Argentina, contributes to the increase in atmospheric CH concentration, we conducted systematic collections of time-integrated air samples for a year in six city sites with different population and built-up density. Some meteorological parameters and NG consumption were registered.

Temporal variation in methane emissions in a shallow lake at a southern mid latitude during high and low rainfall periods.

The global methane (CH) emission of lakes is estimated at between 6 and 16 % of total natural CH emissions. However, these values have a high uncertainty due to the wide variety of lakes with important differences in their morphological, biological, and physicochemical parameters and the relatively scarse data from southern mid-latitude lakes. For these reasons, we studied CH fluxes and CH dissolved in water in a typical shallow lake in the Pampean Wetland, Argentina, during four periods of consecutive years (April 2011-March 2015) preceded by different rainfall conditions.