CBL Assistant Professor Dr. Laura Lapham is examining the release of the potent greenhouse gas methane in the Baltic Sea, Chesapeake Bay, and Arctic lakes.
Methane gas builds up naturally in the soil from the breakdown of organic matter that settles at the bottom of water bodies. Methane in the atmosphere adds to climate change, so it is important to monitor its levels and movement in nature.
For three years, Lapham took water and sediment samples from all over the Baltic Sea, the body of water between central and northern Europe. She used the data to create a map that shows the amounts of methane flowing from the sediment into the water at different locations.
Lapham’s work in the Baltic inspired her to conduct a similar study in the Chesapeake Bay, but with a twist. She wanted to see if there was a link between the amount of methane released from the sediment and the amount of oxygen in the water. CBL Graduate Research Assistant Lauren Gelesh, Lapham’s student, placed several pump-like instruments at the bottom of the Bay to continuously collect water samples before, during, and after waters went hypoxic. Hypoxia is a shortage of oxygen in water which has become more common in the Bay’s bottom waters in the last 15 years. Studying the samples revealed that more methane is released into the water where the water’s oxygen levels are low.
The next phase of Lapham and Gelesh’s research is to determine whether the methane gas released into the waters of the Bay and the Baltic enters the atmosphere as well — if so, the buried methane is a natural source causing climate change. Lapham has also received funding from the National Science Foundation to study methane in Arctic lakes in 2015.
