Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 5 3 2008 10.5194/bg-5-937-2008 http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/937/2008/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/937/2008/bg-5-937-2008.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/937/2008/bg-5-937-2008.pdf 937 947 2008-06-26 Effect of UV radiation and temperature on the emission of methane from plant biomass and structural components I. Vigano H. van Weelden R. Holzinger F. Keppler A. McLeod T. Röckmann Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584ED Utrecht, The Netherlands Department of Dermatology and Allergology Utrecht University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584CX Utrecht, The Netherlands Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Joh.-Joachim-Becher-Weg 2, 55128 Mainz, Germany School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Crew Building, The King's Buildings, West, UK The recently reported finding that plant matter and living plants produce significant amounts of the important greenhouse gas methane under aerobic conditions has led to an intense scientific and public controversy. Whereas some studies question the up-scaling method that was used to estimate the global source strength, others have suggested that experimental artifacts could have caused the reported signals, and two studies, one based on isotope labeling, have recently reported the absence of CH₄ emissions from plants. 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