A 10-year study claims that the arid wastelands can absorb carbon dioxide, perhaps reducing the effect of global warming.

An experiment was performed in the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada. Nine separate desert plots were exposed to different levels of carbon dioxide over a decade: three received no extra air, three were pumped with the modern level of carbon dioxide -- 380 parts per million, and three received concentrations of the level expected in 2050, 550 parts per million.

The study indicates that the plots that were exposed to more carbon dioxide accumulated it at a faster rate than the plots that were not. However, the analysis of the data suggests that deserts could account for 15 to 28 percent of CO2 absorbed by land surfaces, which would still be only four to eight percent of total carbon dioxide emissions in the future. In other words, deserts are not enough to actually stop the global warming.

"It is definitely not going to stop it," said lead author of the study Dave Evans from Washington State University. "Just now we are understanding the processes that are going on. But we are still seeing huge amounts of carbon accumulating in the atmosphere."

"It is worth noting that, although the sink in this experiment is significant, it is about a hundredfold less than typical sinks in young forested ecosystems," said Christopher Field, lead author of a new Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). "The bottom line is that deserts will not save us from climate change."