Carbon-14 in methane sources and in atmospheric methane - The contribution from fossil carbon

Measurements of carbon-14 in small samples of methane from major biogenic sources, from biomass burning, and in clean air samples from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres reveal that methane from ruminants contains contemporary carbon, whereas that from wetlands, peat bogs, rice fields, and tundra, is somewhat depleted in carbon-14. Atmospheric (C-14)H4 seems to have increased from 1986 to 1987, and levels at the end of 1987 were 123.3 + or - 0.8 percent modern carbon in the Northern Hemisphere and 120.0 + or - 0.7 percent modern carbon in the Southern Hemisphere.