Antarctic seep emergence and discovery in the shallow coastal environment

In recent years, global methane sources and sinks have received increased attention owing to the rapid increase in atmospheric methane over the past decade and the high warming potential of methane (~80 times CO₂ over a 20-year period¹). There is a continued gap between the measured increase in atmospheric methane and the total emissions predicted from currently known methane sources – this underpins global efforts to better understand potential methane release from sources with the highest uncertainties, including the ocean and coasts². Polar regions are increasingly recognized as containing globally significant volumes of methane in subglacial and marine reservoirs, with research in the geologic record^3,4 and the contemporary Arctic^5,6,7 illustrating the climate sensitivity of these systems.

One such mechanism of release from these reservoirs is from seeps in the marine^{8,9,10,11,12,13} or terrestrial^4,6,14 environment, in addition to direct subglacial flux^5,7. Seeps are areas of the seafloor where there is seepage of fluids rich in hydrocarbons (e.g., methane) or other chemicals (e.g., sulfide), often creating distinct marine habitats. Tens of thousands of methane seeps have been identified in the Arctic to date, with linkages to ice mass loss since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)^4,8,13,15,16 as well as more recent climate change impacts^5,7,17. The degradation of cryospheric caps, such as glacial ice, permafrost, and gas hydrates (methane and carbon dioxide gas trapped in an ice matrix) has been attributed^3,4,5,6,7,15 as drivers for changes in methane flux in these instances

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