The study, A desiccating saline lake bed is a significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions was published in the journal One Earth on July 25.
Fieldwork was conducted by two former Utah State University researchers when they were at the university, co-author Soren Brothers was Assistant Professor of Limnology at USU, and lead author Melissa Cobo, was a master's student at USU. Tobias Goldhammer, a researcher at Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Researcher in Berlin, Germany, also contributed to the study.
Measurements of carbon dioxide and methane gases from dried up lakebed were conducted every two weeks over several months. According to the study calculations from this sampling, the tons of greenhouse gasses emitted to the atmosphere, constitute an approximately 7% increase to Utah’s human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
The study indicates that desiccating saline lakebeds across the world may contribute significantly more to global warming than previously thought.
