研究显示，犹他州大盐湖干涸的湖床在 2020 年释放了 410 万吨温室气体。这一发现凸显了因人类消费和气候变化而加剧的湖床干涸所产生的重要排放源，但这一排放源往往被忽视。这项研究强调，在气候变化减缓和规划工作中，有必要详细研究湖泊干涸问题。
Research shows that the dried lakebed of Utah's Great Salt Lake released 4.1 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2020. This finding highlights a significant emission source resulting from lake bed drying, exacerbated by human consumption and climate change, which is often overlooked. The study emphasizes the need for detailed examination of lake drying in climate change mitigation and planning efforts.
皇家安大略博物馆（ROM）最新公布的研究结果显示，犹他州大盐湖干涸湖床的温室气体排放量在 2020 年达到 410 万吨二氧化碳和其他温室气体。这项研究表明，干涸的湖床是一个被忽视但潜在的重要温室气体排放源，气候变化可能会进一步增加温室气体的排放。
The latest research findings published by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) show that greenhouse gas emissions from the dried lakebed of Utah's Great Salt Lake reached 4.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in 2020. This study indicates that dried lakebeds are an overlooked but potentially significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, which climate change may further exacerbate.
这些结果发表在今天（7 月 25 日）出版的《一个地球》杂志上的论文《干涸的盐湖湖床是人为温室气体排放的重要来源》中。
These results were published in a paper titled "Dried Salt Lake Beds are a Significant Source of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions" in the journal "One Earth" released today (July 25).
索伦-兄弟（Soren Brothers）说："人为造成的大盐湖干涸正在暴露大片湖床，并向大气中释放大量温室气体，湖泊干涸作为气候变化的一个驱动因素，其重要性需要得到更详细的探讨，并在气候变化减缓和流域规划中加以考虑。"他是这项研究的负责人，同时也是 ROM 的艾伦-希夫（Allan and Helaine Shiff）气候变化馆馆长。
Soren Brothers, the lead researcher of this study and the Allan and Helaine Shiff Curator of Climate Change at ROM, stated: "The anthropogenic drying of the Great Salt Lake is exposing vast areas of lakebed and releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The importance of lake drying as a driver of climate change needs to be more thoroughly explored and considered in climate change mitigation and watershed planning efforts."
大盐湖的水位每年都在变化，主要取决于从周围山脉流入湖中的融水量--从 20 世纪 80 年代的历史最高水位到 2022 年的历史最低水位。然而，与人类相关的农业、工业和市政用水消耗了越来越多的淡水，多年来已导致湖水枯竭。
The water level of the Great Salt Lake changes annually, primarily depending on the amount of meltwater flowing in from surrounding mountains - ranging from historical high levels in the 1980s to historical low levels in 2022. However, human-related agricultural, industrial, and municipal water consumption has been depleting increasingly more freshwater, leading to lake depletion over the years.
在世界其他地方，这些对水的竞争性使用也对湖泊水位产生了重大影响。随着咸海、乌尔米耶湖、里海和大盐湖等标志性盐湖的干涸，它们不仅破坏了生物多样性的重要栖息地，造成空气质量状况恶化，影响人类健康，而且由于新暴露的沉积物释放出二氧化碂和甲烷，还会加速气候变化。
In other parts of the world, these competitive uses of water have also significantly impacted lake levels. As iconic salt lakes such as the Aral Sea, Lake Urmia, the Caspian Sea, and the Great Salt Lake dry up, they not only destroy important habitats for biodiversity and create poor air quality conditions affecting human health, but also accelerate climate change due to the release of carbon dioxide and methane from newly exposed sediments.
研究小组在 2020 年 4 月至 11 月期间测量了犹他州大盐湖裸露沉积物中的二氧化碳和甲烷排放量，并将其与水生排放量估计值进行比较，以确定与干燥有关的人为温室气体排放量。根据采样计算得出的结果表明，湖床向大气排放了 410 万吨温室气体，其中主要（94%）为二氧化碂，使犹他州人为温室气体排放量增加了约 7%。
The research team measured carbon dioxide and methane emissions from exposed sediments of Utah's Great Salt Lake between April and November 2020, comparing them with estimated aquatic emissions to determine the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions associated with drying. Results calculated from the sampling indicated that the lakebed released 4.1 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, primarily (94%) carbon dioxide, increasing Utah's anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 7%.
实地考察是在索伦-兄弟担任犹他州立大学湖沼学助理教授期间进行的，第一作者梅丽莎-科博是犹他州立大学的硕士研究生。共同作者托比亚斯-戈尔德哈默（Tobias Goldhammer）是德国柏林莱布尼茨淡水研究所（IGB Institute）的合作研究员。
The field research was conducted while Soren Brothers was serving as an Assistant Professor of Limnology at Utah State University. The first author, Melissa Cobble, is a master's student at Utah State University. Co-author Tobias Goldhammer is a research associate at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB Institute) in Berlin, Germany.
每两周使用一个连接在密闭室上的便携式温室气体分析仪从干涸的湖床上测量一次二氧化碂和甲烷气体。在这一年中，研究人员反复考察了位于湖泊南端的七个地点，并在为期三天的密集活动中对另外三个地点进行了采样，以确定整个湖泊的空间变化情况，该湖泊面积达 1700 平方英里（4,400 平方公里），是西半球最大的盐湖。
Carbon dioxide and methane gases were measured biweekly from the dried lakebed using a portable greenhouse gas analyzer connected to a closed chamber. Throughout the year, researchers repeatedly visited seven sites at the southern end of the lake and sampled three additional sites during a three-day intensive effort to determine spatial variation across the entire lake, which covers an area of 1,700 square miles (4,400 square kilometers) and is the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere.
由于甲烷是一种比二氧化碂强 28 倍的温室气体，这些排放物对全球变暖的影响被计算为"二氧化碂当量"，以考虑甲烷的更大影响。最终，这些数据表明，干涸湖床的温室气体排放与气温升高密切相关，即使在暴露了二十多年的地点也是如此。
As methane is a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the impact of these emissions on global warming was calculated as "CO2 equivalents" to account for methane's greater effect. Ultimately, these data indicated that greenhouse gas emissions from the dried lakebed were closely related to temperature increases, even at sites that had been exposed for over two decades.
为了确定该湖在历史上是否会成为温室气体的重要来源，研究小组对该湖的近岸温室气体排放进行了测量，并对研究小组收集的水化学数据和政府数据集进行了分析。这些分析结果表明，原来的湖泊不可能成为大气温室气体的重要来源，因此干涸的湖床成为大气变暖的新动力。
To determine if the lake would have historically been a significant source of greenhouse gases, the research team measured nearshore greenhouse gas emissions from the lake and analyzed water chemistry data collected by the research group and government datasets. These analyses suggested that the original lake was unlikely to have been a significant source of atmospheric greenhouse gases, making the dried lakebed a new driver of atmospheric warming.
由于气候变化加剧了干旱地区的干旱，河流和湖泊的干涸可能会导致气候变化的反馈循环，因此在评估全球温室气体输出以及减排政策和努力时应加以考虑。
As climate change intensifies droughts in arid regions, the drying of rivers and lakes may lead to feedback loops of climate change and should be considered when assessing global greenhouse gas output and in emission reduction policies and efforts.