Inland waters are large sources of methane to the atmosphere. However, considerable uncertainty exists in estimating the emissions of this potent greenhouse gas from global streams and rivers due, in part, to a lack of direct measurements in the high-altitude cryosphere and poor accounting for ebullition. Here we present methane concentrations and fluxes over three years in four basins on the East Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Methane ebullition rates decrease exponentially whereas diffusion declines linearly with increasing stream order. Nonetheless, the average ebullition rate (11.9 mmolCH₄ m⁻² d⁻¹) from these streams and rivers—which have large organic stocks in surrounding permafrost, abundant cold-tolerant methanogens, shallow water depths, and experience low air pressure—were six times greater than the global average and reached a maximum of 374.4 mmolCH₄ m⁻² d⁻¹. Upscaled total emissions from sampled third- to seventh-order waterways of the East Qinghai–Tibet Plateau are estimated to be 0.20 TgCH₄ yr⁻¹, 79% of which was attributed to ebullition. These methane emissions are approximately 20% of CO₂ emissions (2.70 TgCO₂ yr⁻¹) in terms of carbon release and two times greater in terms of CO₂-equivalent emissions. When upscaled to first- to seventh-order waterways, we estimate emissions of 0.37–1.23 TgCH₄ yr⁻¹. Our findings demonstrate that high-elevation rivers on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau are hotspots of methane delivery to the atmosphere. The large ebullitive fluxes, which constitute a substantial fraction of global fluvial methane emissions, reveal a positive feedback between climate warming, permafrost thaw and methane emissions.

内陆水域是大气中甲烷的主要来源。但是，在估算全球溪流和河流中这种强效温室气体的排放量时，存在很大的不确定性，部分原因是由于在高空冰冻圈中缺乏直接测量结果，并且对沸腾的解释不充分。在这里，我们介绍了青藏高原东部四个盆地中三年内的甲烷浓度和通量。甲烷沸腾速率呈指数下降，而扩散随流序增加而线性下降。尽管如此，平均沸腾速率（11.9 mmolCH ₄  m ^-2  d ^-1）从这些溪流和河流，其中有大量的有机股多年冻土环境，丰富的耐寒产甲烷菌，浅水和经验，气压低，均高于全球平均水平的六倍，达到最大值374.4 mmolCH的₄ 中号^{- 2}  d ^-1。从青藏高原东部采样的三阶到七阶水道的总排放量估计为0.20 TgCH ₄  yr ^-1，其中79％归因于沸腾。就碳释放而言，这些甲烷排放量约占CO ₂排放量的20％（2.70 TgCO ₂  yr ^-1），而就CO ₂而言则是其两倍。等效排放。当升级到一阶到七阶航道时，我们估计排放量为0.37–1.23 TgCH ₄  yr ^-1。我们的发现表明，青藏高原的高海拔河流是甲烷向大气中输送的热点。大的沸腾通量占全球河流甲烷排放量的很大一部分，显示出气候变暖，多年冻土融化和甲烷排放之间存在正反馈。