Click the link to read the article on The Washington Post website (Joshua Partlow). Here’s an excerpt:
July 25, 2024
The Great Salt Lake released 4.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in 2020, researchers found — more evidence that dried-out lakes are a significant source of emissions.
In a new study in the journal One Earth, the researchers [Melissa Cobo and Soren Brothers] calculated that 4.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were released from the drying bed of the Great Salt Lake in 2020, the year Cobo and others collected the samples. This would amount to about a 7 percent increase in Utah’s human-caused emissions, the authors found. While other researchers have documented carbon emissions from dried-out lakes — including the Aral Sea in Central Asia — Brothers said that his study tried to calculate what part of the emissions from this major saline lake could be attributed to humans, as the Great Salt Lake has been drawn down for human use, a decline worsened by climate change and the West’s megadrought of the past two decades.
“This is the first time we’re saying, ‘This is something that’s on us,’” said Brothers, now a climate change curator with the Royal Ontario Museum…Lakes around the world normally store carbon. Plant and animal remains settle on the bottom over thousands of years as sediment, much of it in low-oxygen layers that degrade slowly. When lakes dry out, oxygen can penetrate deep into the sediment, waking up microorganisms that start to feast on the organic matter, releasing carbon dioxide, Marcé said…
Utah’s Great Salt Lake — the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere — has been a buffet for microorganisms in recent years. Lake levels fell to record lows two years ago. It rebounded some after the past two wet winters, but vast stretches of dry lake bed remain, and levels still lie below what state officials consider a healthy range. There are many dangers posed by its diminished state, including toxic dust, loss of habitat for birds, and impact on brine shrimp and other industries.
