What they found is troubling. These stresses caused plants to emit more methane. In a warmer, drier world methane might be a bigger contributor in global warming than previously thought.

When it comes to the greenhouse effect, methane could be considered the misunderstood and often overlooked orphan greenhouse gas, said an U-C release.

Its concentrations have more than doubled since pre-industrial times. While the growth rate of methane concentrations has slowed since the early 1990s, some scientists say this is only a temporary pause.

These findings were published online in Physiologia Plantarum.