Robotic Observations of Dust Storm Enhancement of Carbon Biomass in the North Pacific

Bishop, James K. B.; Davis, Russ E.; Sherman, Jeffrey T.

doi:10.1126/science.1074961

Cited by 393 publications

(280 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Enhanced wind erosion related to soil degradation is the largest ecological problem in the East Asian steppe [Kaiser, 2004]. Dusts originated from this region have been transported for long distance by winds and laden onto the North China Plain, the Korea Peninsular, and even the northern Pacific areas [Bishop et al, 2002]. Thus soil degradation in this region is an issue of global importance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic and anthropogenic controls of topsoil features in the semi‐arid East Asian steppe

Liu

Yin

Tian

et al. 2008

Geophysical Research Letters

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Topsoil characteristics and their determinants in the steppe on the central Inner Mongolian Plateau were investigated. Percentages of different grain size fractions of topsoil samples from 236 plots and corresponding standardized data of four environmental/human‐activity factors, namely mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), human disturbance index (HDI) and land use/land cover (LULC) types were used to perform canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The roles of both human land uses and climatic factors on topsoil grain size distribution are highlighted. Climatic factors seem to have played a significant role in determining the coarse sand (0.2–1 mm in size) percentages in the steppe and meadow by affecting the vegetation cover, while human disturbance indicated by species composition appears to have significantly influenced the percentages of clay (<0.002 mm in size) and fine‐medium silt (0.002–0.016 mm in size) in the typical steppe (P < 0.01). Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) content is negatively correlated with coarse sand percentages (P < 0.01), implying that reduction of soil fertility is linked to soil coarsening. Percentages of fine‐medium silts (0.002–0.016 mm in size) are still more abundant in the area where artificial vegetation are planted and remains as the major source of dust storms. This study implies that afforestation in the steppe region has not improved soil conditions and thus reduced dust storms as earlier expected.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic and anthropogenic controls of topsoil features in the semi‐arid East Asian steppe

Liu

Yin

Tian

et al. 2008

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…These regions are characterized by an excess pool of macronutrients delivered to the euphotic zone by mixing that is incompletely consumed during the annual biogeochemical cycle (Falkowski et al, 1998). The incomplete consumption has been explained by a lack of dissolved iron for which eolian dust is suggested to be the primary source in the SNP (e.g., Bishop et al, 2002;Duce and Tindale, 1991;Martin and Fitzwater, 1988;Martin et al, 1989; (Natland, 1993) and 881-882 (Cao et al, 1995a). ODP site 887 (Cao et al, 1995b) and MD02-2489 (Gebhardt et al, 2008) are located near stations 26-28, RAMA 44PC (Keigwin et al, 1992) is located near station 5 and the site of core RC10-196 (Kohfeld and Chase, 2011) is located near station 13.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eolian dust input to the Subarctic North Pacific

Serno

Winckler

Anderson

et al. 2014

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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Eolian dust is a significant source of iron and other nutrients that are essential for the health of marine ecosystems and potentially a controlling factor of the high nutrient-low chlorophyll status of the Subarctic North Pacific. We map the spatial distribution of dust input using three different geochemical tracers of eolian dust, 4 He, 232 Th and rare earth elements, in combination with grain size distribution data, from a set of core-top sediments covering the entire Subarctic North Pacific. Using the suite of geochemical proxies to fingerprint different lithogenic components, we deconvolve eolian dust input from other lithogenic inputs such as volcanic ash, ice-rafted debris, riverine and hemipelagic input. While the open ocean sites far away from the volcanic arcs are dominantly composed of pure eolian dust, lithogenic components other than eolian dust play a more crucial role along the arcs. In sites dominated by dust, eolian dust input appears to be characterized by a nearly uniform grain size mode at ∼4 μm.Applying the 230 Th-normalization technique, our proxies yield a consistent pattern of uniform dust fluxes of 1-2 g/m 2 /yr across the Subarctic North Pacific. Elevated eolian dust fluxes of 2-4 g/m 2 /yr characterize the westernmost region off Japan and the southern Kurile Islands south of 45 • N and west of 165 • E along the main pathway of the westerly winds. The core-top based dust flux reconstruction is consistent with recent estimates based on dissolved thorium isotope concentrations in seawater from the Subarctic North Pacific. The dust flux pattern compares well with state-of-the-art dust model predictions in the western and central Subarctic North Pacific, but we find that dust fluxes are higher than modeled fluxes by 0.5-1 g/m 2 /yr in the northwest, northeast and eastern Subarctic North Pacific. Our results provide an important benchmark for biogeochemical models and a robust approach for downcore studies testing dust-induced iron fertilization of past changes in biological productivity in the Subarctic North Pacific.

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“…During its wide range dispersion in the atmosphere, dust takes part in mass transformation and transportation (Duce et al 1991;Gao et al 1992), disturbs solar radiation (Tegen et al 1996;Sokolik and Toon 1996), and also provides nutrients to the biological cycles in the ocean (Fung et al 2000;Bishop et al 2002). The physical and chemical properties of the particles are important data in understanding the roles of mineral dust in these processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Size Changes of Asian Dust Particles Caused by Sea Salt and Sulfate

Zhang

Iwasaka

2006

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

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Atmospheric particles were collected in southwestern Japan during dust storm events in spring 2000, and the samples were treated with water-dialysis. In this study, size change of dust particles before and after dialysis is discussed with respect to their sea salt and sulfur contents. It is confirmed that size increase of dust particles has a strong correlation with their sea salt content but is independent from their non-sea-salt sulfur content. This suggests that the growth of dust particles in size during their dispersion in the marine atmosphere is dominated by the combination with sea salt rather than by other processes such as surface uptake of sulfate.

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Robotic Observations of Dust Storm Enhancement of Carbon Biomass in the North Pacific

Cited by 393 publications

References 34 publications

Climatic and anthropogenic controls of topsoil features in the semi‐arid East Asian steppe

Climatic and anthropogenic controls of topsoil features in the semi‐arid East Asian steppe

Eolian dust input to the Subarctic North Pacific

Comparison of Size Changes of Asian Dust Particles Caused by Sea Salt and Sulfate

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