The INQUA Dunes Atlas chronologic database

Lancaster, Nicholas; Wolfe, S A; Thomas, David S.G.; Bristow, Charlie S.; Bubenzer, Olaf; Burrough, Sallie L.; Duller, G.A.T.; Halfen, Alan F.; Hesse, Paul; Roskin, Joel; Singhvi, A. K.; Tsoar, Haim; Tripaldi, Alfonsina; Yang, Xiaoping; Zárate, Marcelo

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.044

Cited by 86 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This heterogeneity of dune records has also been recognized in many other dune fields globally (28)(29)(30)(31). Meanwhile, the increasingly large number of well-dated dune field records allows an integrated approach (32), providing a comprehensive picture of long-term dune field evolution and new insight on the past occurrence of bistability and hysteresis in response to environmental change. In this study, we analyze a large dataset of dune stratigraphic sections with independent age controls in the dune fields of northern China (data file S2) and investigate possible transitions at scales from local (individual study sites) to regional (across all three dune fields) during the past 12,000 years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…These records were interpreted using a total of 531 independent age determinations on depositional strata (data file S2). Most ages were obtained using OSL dating, the most widely applied method for dating dune records (32). By measuring the luminescence signal that accumulates over time following deposition of the sand grains, OSL dating determines the depositional age of the dune sand or sandy soil.…”

Section: Site-specific Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Critical transitions in Chinese dunes during the past 12,000 years

Mason

et al. 2020

Sci. Adv.

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Dune systems can have alternative stable states that coexist under certain environmental conditions: a vegetated, stabilized state and a bare active state. This behavior implies the possibility of abrupt transitions from one state to another in response to gradual environmental change. Here, we synthesize stratigraphic records covering 12,000 years of dynamics of this system at 144 localities across three dune fields in northern China. We find side-by-side coexistence of active and stabilized states, and occasional sharp shifts in time between those contrasting states. Those shifts occur asynchronously despite the fact that the entire landscape has been subject to the same gradual changes in monsoon rainfall and other conditions. At larger scale, the spatial heterogeneity in dune dynamics averages out to produce relatively smooth change. However, our results do show different paths of recovery and collapse of vegetation at system-wide scales, implying that hysteretic behavior occurs in spatially extended systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Site-specific Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical transitions in Chinese dunes during the past 12,000 years

Mason

et al. 2020

Sci. Adv.

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show abstract

“…Similar to the distribution of alluvial sediments, there is not much high resolution information on the distribution of sand dunes and sand sheets for most parts of the Sahara. For example, the INQUA Dunes Atlas [54] only includes one single dune in the whole study area, while the Harmonized World Soil Database [55], which was used by Crouvi et al [48], solely shows the presence of four different surface types in the study area, neither of them being a particularly sandy surface. However, the existence of sand dunes and sand sheets is clearly visible on Google Earth and the Sentinel-2 imagery.…”

Section: Dune and Sand Sheets Mapmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Dust Sources in a Saharan Dust Hot-Spot and Their Implementation in a Dust-Emission Model

Feuerstein

Schepanski

2018

Remote Sensing

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Although mineral dust plays a key role in the Earth's climate system and in climate and weather prediction, models still have difficulties in predicting the amount and distribution of mineral dust in the atmosphere. One reason for this is the limited understanding of the distribution of dust sources and their behavior with respect to their spatiotemporal variability in activity. For a better estimation of the atmospheric dust load, this paper presents an approach to localize dust sources and thereby estimate the sediment supply for a study area centered on the Aïr Massif in Niger with a north-south extent of 16 • -22 • N and an east-west extent of 4 • -12 • E. This approach uses optical Sentinel-2 data at visible and near infrared wavelengths together with HydroSHEDS flow accumulation data to localize ephemeral riverbeds. Visible channels from Sentinel-2 data are used to detect sand sheets and dunes. The identified sediment supply map was compared to the dust source activation frequency derived from the analysis of Desert-Dust-RGB imagery from the Meteosat Second Generation series of satellites. This comparison reveals the strong connection between dust activity, prevailing meteorology and sediment supply. In a second step, the sediment supply information was implemented in a dust-emission model. The simulated emission flux shows how much the model results benefit from the updated sediment supply information in localizing the main dust sources and in retrieving the seasonality of dust activity from these sources. The described approach to characterize dust sources can be implemented in other regional model studies, or even globally, and can thereby help to get a more accurate picture of dust source distribution and a more realistic estimation of the atmospheric dust load.

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“…Determining sediment provenance is indispensable for assessing the state of an aeolian system (Kocurek & Lancaster, 1999;Muhs et al, 2017), and it provides basic information for studies of the sedimentology, geomorphology, and climatology of deserts. Knowledge of the environmental evolution of arid and semiarid areas is important for sustainable development, and it has been a major research topic during the past few decades (Lancaster, 1995;Lancaster et al, 2016;Thomas, 2013;Wang et al, 2012;Yang & Eitel, 2016). The precise significance of sedimentary records for environmental evolution cannot be fully determined without knowledge of sediment provenance Thomas, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentological and Geochemical Composition of Aeolian Sediments in the Taklamakan Desert: Implications for Provenance and Sediment Supply Mechanisms

Jiang

Yang

2019

JGR Earth Surface

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Sediment provenance is a key issue in understanding the aeolian system of the Taklamakan Desert, an important source of global dust and the largest sand sea in the midlatitudes worldwide. In provenance research, it may be a mistake to assume that the sand and dust fractions of desert sediments have the same source, which has been the case in previous studies of the Taklamakan Desert. The aims of the present study were to identify the provenance of the sand and dust fractions of the sediments of the Taklamakan Desert, to determine the contemporary sediment supply mechanisms of the desert, and to assess the relative importance of silt‐producing mechanisms for the desert dust. We analyzed the grain size of desert sediment samples and measured the content of major, trace, and rare earth elements within the bulk samples, sand fractions (>63 μm), and dust fractions (<63 μm). Our grain size and geochemical data sets suggest that the Kunlun Mountains are the main source of the sand fraction, whereas both the Kunlun and Tian Shan Mountains are the main sources of the dust fraction. Our interpretation is supported by the elevation gradient within the Taklamakan Desert and by wind data.

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The INQUA Dunes Atlas chronologic database

Cited by 86 publications

References 28 publications

Critical transitions in Chinese dunes during the past 12,000 years

Critical transitions in Chinese dunes during the past 12,000 years

Identification of Dust Sources in a Saharan Dust Hot-Spot and Their Implementation in a Dust-Emission Model

Sedimentological and Geochemical Composition of Aeolian Sediments in the Taklamakan Desert: Implications for Provenance and Sediment Supply Mechanisms

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