11.20 Anthropogenic Environments

Quantifying Anthropogenic Dust Emissions

“…The connectedness of the dust cycle to human health, agricultural production and the climate system has made the need to quantify and objectively differentiate anthropogenic dust emissions from “natural” dust emissions apparent for some time (Zobeck et al, ). In a synthesis of the problem, Zender et al () defined two kinds of anthropogenic mineral dust emission: (1) arising from human land uses that directly emit dust to the atmosphere (e.g., cultivation) or disturb soils and/or vegetation so that the land surface is more susceptible to erosive winds; and (2) arising from human modification of the climate, which in turn modifies wind erosivity, land erodibility, and the magnitude of dust emissions.…”

“…Anthropogenic land use and land cover change (LULCC) impact rates of wind‐driven soil erosion and mineral dust emission (Ravi et al, ). Local to regional‐scale changes in dust source erodibility are occurring globally in response to the areal expansion and intensification of agriculture to meet demands for food and fiber, episodes of drought, altered hydrological regimes, and changes in land use and tenure (Zobeck et al, ). Dust emissions from disturbed areas impact ecosystem dynamics and agricultural production, air quality, human health, biogeochemical cycles, and climate (Field et al, ; Shao et al, ).…”

“…These interactions have largely been excluded from regional analyses. Extensive field and wind tunnel experimentation have provided a basis for understanding the causal mechanisms of anthropogenic wind erosion and dust emission at small spatial scales (see review by Zobeck et al, ). Developments in remote sensing and numerical modeling, and of indices of land use intensity (LUI), have afforded new opportunities to explore human impacts on dust source erodibility (e.g., Xi & Sokolik, ).…”

Performance of the single‐event wind erosion evaluation program (SWEEP) model in assessing the impact of crop rotation, green manure, fertilizer, and tillage on wind erosion

“…Wind erosion is a serious problem on agricultural lands as a result of removing nutrients and finer soil particles from the soil surface, reducing soil productivity, and suppressing crop growth by sandblasting seedlings during the early growing season (Ravi et al, 2011; Zobeck et al, 2013). Dust emissions due to wind erosion impact air quality, thus airborne dust threatens human health and ecosystem services (Webb & Pierre, 2018).…”