Oh noes! Desert soils emit greenhouse gases in minutes!
5 hours ago Anthony Watts
From the “STOP GREENING THE DESERT” department and the “nobody cares except you guys” division comes this complete waste time time and money.
SDE BOKER, Israel, September 3, 2025 — A groundbreaking study from researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev reveals that desert soils can emit powerful greenhouse gases within minutes of being wetted—even in the absence of microbial life.
Published by Dr. Isaac Yagle and Prof. Ilya Gelfand at BGU’s Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Scientific Reports, the study challenges long-standing assumptions that soil microbes are solely responsible for post-rain “pulse emissions” of gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and nitric oxide (NO). These gas bursts—common in drylands after rainfall—are known to contribute significantly to atmospheric warming and pollution.
Using laboratory experiments, the team compared emissions from natural and sterilized desert soils collected near the Dead Sea. The sterilization, achieved through high-dose gamma irradiation, eliminated most living organisms from the soil. Yet, even without live microbes, the sterilized soils released large quantities of N₂O and NO immediately after wetting—up to 13 times more NO and 5 times more N₂O than the live soils.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/07/oh-noes-desert-soils-emit-greenhouse-gases-in-minutes/
