Apr 07, 2014 01:15 AM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Deserts may play a crucial role in helping to reduce global warming, according to recent study NBC News reported.

Researchers led by Dave Evans, a biologist specializing in ecology and global change at Washington State University, found that dry areas "filled with scrubby vegetation and sand" are absorbing more of the carbon dioxide that is being emitted into the atmosphere than expected, NBC News reported.

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas driving global climate change.

"It is definitely not going to stop it ... just now we are understanding the processes that are going on," Evans told NBC News. "But we are still seeing huge amounts of carbon accumulating in the atmosphere."

Evans and colleagues conducted a 10-year study which involved exposing plots of California's Mojave Desert to carbon dioxide levels expected in 2050. They then removed Soil and plants to a depth of one meter and took measurements to see how much carbon was absorbed.

They found that increasing carbon dioxide boosted activity of the rhizosphere, a microbe-rich area around plant roots. This, in turn, led to greater carbon uptake.

"After 10 years, the experiment stopped and we dug everything up to ask the question: Is there more carbon under future carbon dioxide conditions than there are under current conditions," Evans said. "And what we found was, there was indeed more carbon. During those 10 years, carbon accumulated at a faster rate under future [carbon dioxide] conditions."

Their findings indicate that desert ecosystems may increase their carbon uptake in the future to account for 15 to 28 percent of the carbon currently being absorbed by land surfaces. 

Arid regions account for nearly half of the Earth's land surface.

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