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. 2017 Aug 18;7(1):8741.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-09458-w.

Modern dust aerosol availability in northwestern China

Xunming Wang  1   2 , Hong Cheng  3 , Huizheng Che  4 , Jimin Sun  5 , Huayu Lu  6 , Mingrui Qiang  7 , Ting Hua  8 , Bingqi Zhu  9 , Hui Li  8 , Wenyong Ma  9 , Lili Lang  9 , Linlin Jiao  9 , Danfeng Li  9
Affiliations

Modern dust aerosol availability in northwestern China

Xunming Wang et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The sources of modern dust aerosols and their emission magnitudes are fundamental for linking dust with climate and environment. Using field sample data, wind tunnel experiments and statistical analysis, we determined the contributions of wadis, gobi (stony desert), lakebeds, riverbeds, and interdunes to modern dust aerosol availability in the three important potential dust sources including the Tarim Basin, Qaidam Basin, and Ala Shan Plateau of China. The results show that riverbeds are the dominant landscape for modern dust aerosol availabilities in the Qaidam Basin, while wadis, gobi, and interdunes are the main landscapes over the Ala Shan Plateau and Tarim Basin. The Ala Shan Plateau and Tarim Basin are potential dust sources in northwestern China, while the Qaidam Basin is not a major source of the modern dust aerosols nowadays, and it is not acting in a significant way to the Loess Plateau presently. Moreover, most of modern dust aerosol emissions from China originated from aeolian processes with low intensities rather than from major dust events.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Locations of the Qaidam Basin, Ala Shan Plateau, Tarim Basin, and the landscapes with high modern dust aerosol emissions. Numbers within the brackets are the number of samples. The figure was finished using Arcgis software (version 10.1, ESRI Inc., Redlands, California, USA), which can be downloaded from the internal network of Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Availabilities of PM2.5 (A), PM5 (B), PM10 (C), and PM50 (D) (g m−2) during one aeolian event for different landscapes. W: wadi; G: gobi; R: riverbed; L: lakebed; and I: interdune.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The comparison in the availabilities of PM2.5, PM5, PM10 and PM50 among different landscapes. (A) Qaidam Basin; (B) Ala Shan Plateau; and (C) Tarim Basin.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic diagram of (A) the wind tunnel and sample arrangement during the wind tunnel experiment, and (B) the surface samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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