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Atmosphere
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Paleoclimate Changes and Dust Cycle Recorded by Eolian Sediments
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Paleoclimate Changes and Dust Cycle Recorded by Eolian Sediments

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2025 | Viewed by 3397

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yougui Song

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710061, China
Interests: loess; dust sources; paleoclimate; Cenozoic geology; Central Asia; Chinese Loess Plateau; Tibetan Plateau
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Chaofeng Fu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Western Mineral Resources and Geological Engineering, Ministry of Education of China, The School of Earth Science and Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China
Interests: Cenozoic eolian sediments; Paleoclimate; Paleomagnetism and environmental magnetism; Chinese Loess Plateau; Tibetan Plateau

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Paleoclimate study is of paramount importance in unraveling the Earth's climatic history and understanding the dynamics of our planet's past. Eolian sediments, often composed of wind-blown dust and sand, serve as invaluable archives of paleoclimate and environmental change, preserving a wealth of information about temperature variations, precipitation patterns, and the frequency of extreme weather or dust storm events, thus providing critical insights into climatic variability, atmospheric circulations, and ecosystem evolution over millions of years.  By analyzing various physicochemical and paleontological proxies such as grain size, magnetism, mineralogical composition, isotopic signatures, sporopollen, and snail and sedimentary structures of eolian deposits, researchers can reconstruct past wind patterns, variations of climate factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation and moisture), and also dust activity. Thus, Cenozoic eolian sediments are crucial for refining climate models, investigating dust history, and improving our ability to predict future climate scenarios.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collate original and novel research papers devoted variously to timescale paleoclimate reconstruction, dust events during the Cenozoic period based on the eolian sediments, and the effects of dust cycles on the local/global environment. Wind-blown sediments can involve Quaternary loess, Tertiary red clay and red earth, and even paleodunes, which mainly are patched in the Asian interior arid area, e.g., Chinese Loess Plateau, Central Asia, or other worldwide wind-blown deposit area, e.g., Eastern Europe, North America. Paleoclimatic change inferred from the dust components in lacustrine and deep-sea sediments are also welcome. This SI seeks to provide insights into past climate patterns, environmental changes in different timescales based on various physicochemical, biological proxies, and the impact of dust on Earth's ecosystems, contributing to a better understanding of paleoclimatology and global dust cycle.

We encourage the submission of research manuscripts which focus on, but are not limited to, the discussion of the following topics:

  • Dating of eolian sediments (paleomagnetism, OSL, AMS 14C …..);
  • Dust resources identification and tracing, dust flux and dust sediment rate;
  • Quantitative methods of paleoprecipitation and paleotemperature reconstructions;
  • Dust storm and climate abrupt events;
  • Various time-scales (tectonic, orbital, suborbital, millennium, centennial, decadal) paleoclimate reconstructions;
  • History of dust emission, transportation, deposition and its influence on past climates;
  • Dust process and atmospheric circulations and its effects on ecosystem.

Prof. Dr. Yougui Song
Prof. Dr. Chaofeng Fu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • loess deposits
  • wind-blown sediments
  • dust provenance
  • paleoclimate changes
  • aeolian processes and atmospheric circulation
  • dust cycle and environment effect of dust
  • Quaternary, Cenozoic

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 8329 KiB  
Article
Soil Genesis of Alluvial Parent Material in the Qinghai Lake Basin (NE Qinghai–Tibet Plateau) Revealed Using Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating
by Shuaiqi Zhang, Chongyi E, Xianba Ji, Ping Li, Qiang Peng, Zhaokang Zhang and Qi Zhang
Atmosphere 2024, 15(9), 1066; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15091066 - 3 Sep 2024
Viewed by 498
Abstract
Alluvial parent material soil is an important soil type found on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) in China. However, due to the limited age data for alluvial soils, the relationship between alluvial geomorphological processes and soil pedogenic processes remains unclear. In this study, three [...] Read more.
Alluvial parent material soil is an important soil type found on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) in China. However, due to the limited age data for alluvial soils, the relationship between alluvial geomorphological processes and soil pedogenic processes remains unclear. In this study, three representative alluvial parent material profiles on the Buha River alluvial plain in the Qinghai Lake Basin, northeast QTP, were analyzed using the optical luminescence (OSL) dating method. Combined with physical and chemical analyses of the soil, we further analyzed the pedogenic process of alluvial soil. The alluvial parent material of the Buha alluvial plain predominately yielded ages between 11.9 and 9.1 ka, indicating that the alluvial soil began to form during the early Holocene. The development of the alluvial soil on the first-order terrace presents characteristics of entisol with multiple burial episodes, mainly between 8.5 and 4.0 ka, responding to the warm and humid middle Holocene and high lake levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Paleoclimate Changes and Dust Cycle Recorded by Eolian Sediments)
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20 pages, 4331 KiB  
Article
Paleoclimate Controls on West African Dust Inferred from Rb/Sr and Si/Al of Sediments in an Eastern Equatorial Atlantic Marine Core
by Christopher J. Lepre, Clara Y. Chang and Owen M. Yazzie
Atmosphere 2024, 15(8), 902; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15080902 - 28 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1255
Abstract
Increased dust emissions from dryland areas and their effects on human health, ecosystem viability, and environmental change are a global concern in the face of the growing climate crisis. Dust plume emissions from the West African landmass, Sahara, and Sahel areas comprise a [...] Read more.
Increased dust emissions from dryland areas and their effects on human health, ecosystem viability, and environmental change are a global concern in the face of the growing climate crisis. Dust plume emissions from the West African landmass, Sahara, and Sahel areas comprise a major fraction of the global aerosol budget. Dust plume intensity is closely related to regional winds (e.g., Harmattan, Sahara Air Layer), the Intertropical Convergence Zone, monsoonal seasonality, marine currents, and physiography. To study terrigenous material emitted from the continent over the last ~260 kyr (late Quaternary), we used X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) to analyze a ~755 cm long marine sediment core from the eastern equatorial Atlantic Ocean, resulting in nearly 1400 discrete measurements. Spectral analysis results suggest that concentrations of elements (Rb, Sr, Si, Al) preserved in the sediments are correlated to different types of orbital climate forcing. Chemical weathering intensity indicated by the Rb/Sr ratio was sensitive to seasonal insolation variations controlled by precession cycles (23–18 kyr), which presumably reflects the relationship between monsoonal rainfall and sensible heating of the continent. Spectral analysis of silicate mineral grain size (Si/Al) showed significant 40 kyr cycles that were paced by obliquity. Based on these data, we infer that winter tradewind activity accelerated in response to the intertropical insolation gradient induced by high obliquity. High Rb/Sr ratios during the last glacial maximum and penultimate glacial maximum may have been due to a predominance of mechanical weathering over chemical weathering under dry/cool climates or the dissolution of Sr-bearing carbonates by corrosive glacial bottom waters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Paleoclimate Changes and Dust Cycle Recorded by Eolian Sediments)
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14 pages, 9677 KiB  
Article
Holocene Paleoclimate Changes around Qinghai Lake in the Northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Insights from Isotope Geochemistry of Aeolian Sediment
by Qiang Peng, Chongyi E, Xiangzhong Li, Yongjuan Sun, Jing Zhang, Shuaiqi Zhang, Yunkun Shi, Xianba Ji and Zhaokang Zhang
Atmosphere 2024, 15(7), 833; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15070833 - 12 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 910
Abstract
The stable carbon isotope composition of total organic matter (δ13Corg) has been utilized in aeolian sediments, serving as an indicator for reconstructing terrestrial paleoenvironments. The Qinghai Lake (QHL) Basin is a climate-sensitive region of significant importance in paleoclimatic reconstruction. [...] Read more.
The stable carbon isotope composition of total organic matter (δ13Corg) has been utilized in aeolian sediments, serving as an indicator for reconstructing terrestrial paleoenvironments. The Qinghai Lake (QHL) Basin is a climate-sensitive region of significant importance in paleoclimatic reconstruction. However, the reconstructed climatic variations based on δ13Corg in aeolian sediments in the QHL Basin in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) are lacking, and their paleoclimatic significance remains poorly understood. By conducting δ13Corg measurements on the Niaodao (ND) aeolian profile near QHL, we reconstructed the paleoclimate changes of 11 ka–present. The variation range of the δ13Corg values in the ND profile indicated the terrestrial ecosystems were not the sole contributor to lacustrine organic matter. The δ13Corg values are an indicator of historical temperature changes in the study area, exhibiting similar trends with the reconstruction of Chinese summer temperatures, East Asian air temperature, global temperature, and Northern Hemisphere summer insolation at 37° N. The temperature increased with high frequency and amplitude oscillations, with strong aeolian activity and low total organic carbon accumulation during the Early Holocene. The temperature was maintained at a high and stable level, with the weakest aeolian activity and intensified pedogenesis during the Middle Holocene. The temperature decreased at a high rate, with renewed aeolian activity and weak pedogenesis during the Late Holocene. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Paleoclimate Changes and Dust Cycle Recorded by Eolian Sediments)
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