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Relative importance of climate and land use in determining present and future global soil dust emission
Author(s) -
Tegen I.,
Werner M.,
Harrison S. P.,
Kohfeld K. E.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl019216
Subject(s) - environmental science , atmospheric dust , dust storm , storm , atmospheric sciences , climate change , climatology , meteorology , aerosol , geography , geology , oceanography
The current consensus is that up to half of the modern atmospheric dust load originates from anthropogenically‐disturbed soils. Here, we estimate the contribution to the atmospheric dust load from agricultural areas by calibrating a dust‐source model with emission indices derived from dust‐storm observations. Our results indicate that dust from agricultural areas contributes <10% to the global dust load. Analyses of future changes in dust emissions under several climate and land‐use scenarios suggest dust emissions may increase or decrease, but either way the effects of climate change will dominate dust emissions.