A review on the research of modern aeolian dust in Central Asia
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ORIGINAL PAPER
A review on the research of modern aeolian dust in Central Asia Hao Shen 1,2,3 & Jilili Abuduwaili 1,2 & Alim Samat 1,2 & Long Ma 1,2
Received: 27 May 2016 / Accepted: 15 August 2016 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2016
Abstract The Central Asian Arid Zone (CAAZ) located in the temperate desert belt of the Northern Hemisphere is one of the most important sources for global aeolian dust and aerosol. It is widely acknowledged that aeolian dust plays a vital role in the Earth system through participating in the energy and material budget of the planet. Except for the existed natural desert areas, the newly human-induced deserts that originally used to be the bed of terminal lakes (like the Aral Sea, Caspian Sea, Balkhash Lake, etc.) are becoming the much more significant sources for aeolian dust/salt in this region. Dust and associated aerosols have complex impacts on local ecological system and human health for its special chemical composition. In recent years, a slight declining trend of dust storm frequency in the region was reported, which may be explained by the weakened human disturbances in desert areas or climate variations. The dust dynamics in the CAAZ represent considerable variations in both spatial and temporal distribution, which makes it harder to forecast the dust events and mitigate its damages to ecosystems and social economics. Nevertheless, there is not much evidence of its climatic and environmental impacts both on the regional and global scales. Therefore, further related studies and regulation measures in the region are essential and emergent, as well as the strengthening cooperation between the associated countries and organizations.
* Jilili Abuduwaili [email protected]
1
State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi, China
2
CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi, China
3
University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China
Keywords Central Asia . Aeolian dust . Global change . Anthropogenic activities
Introduction Aeolian dust mostly emitted from soils in arid and semi-arid regions is a key component of the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Each year, megatons of dust are lifted into the atmosphere by strong near-surface winds over the global arid regions (Flagg et al. 2013). These fine dust particles can be blown to high upper atmosphere and transported hundreds even to thousands of kilometers around the planet. There are a range of important impacts of aeolian dust on the Earth system, which acts on timescales from minutes to millennia. Suspended dust particles significantly influences radiation budget of the Earth system not only through absorbing and scattering the incoming shortwave solar radiation but also by interacting with the outgoing longwave radiation and modifying the optical properties of clouds and snow/ice surfaces on which they are deposited (Lau et al. 2006). In addition, because of its condensation nuclei effect (Creamean et al. 201
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