Lakes in Arid Land and Saline Dust Storms

¹ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences Urumqi, 830011, P.R. China
² CAS Research Centre for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, P.R. China
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P.R. China

^* Corresponding author: jilil@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Abstract

Saline dust storms are typical mainly for the arid and semiarid Central Asia induced by environmental change of tail-end lake basin. Although not the dominant type of global dust, saline dusts from playas may be important with respect to atmospheric chemistry, windborne nutrients and human health because of their high salt content. Saline dust storms in Central Asia occur frequently; this is not only a local issue, but also a regional ecological disaster. A complete understanding of the mechanism and diffusion characteristics are urgently required, and control measurements are urgently needed to lessen the occurrence of saline dust storms, which has been an ignored and serious environmental issue in the context of climate change in arid and semi-arid regions.