PM10 Emissions from Natural Surfaces in Southwestern North America
Abstract
Native plant communities throughout the Southwestern United States are subject to increased abiotic stress due to climate change. As native grass cover is replaced by shrubs, more bare soil surface is susceptible to erosion by wind. The dust record for the last 20 years indicates that wind erosion and resultant fugitive dust emissions are increasing over broad areas of the Southwest. We used a Portable In-Situ Wind Erosion Laboratory (PI-SWERL) to assess and compare the erodibility and dust emissions from multiple undisturbed and disturbed soil surfaces in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. We found that PM10 emissions from bare soil surfaces was highly related to crusting rather than soil texture. This has serious implications for modeling emissions from landscapes.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMGH33B1250V
- Keywords:
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- 0230 Impacts of climate change: human health;
- GEOHEALTHDE: 0231 Impacts of climate change: agricultural health;
- GEOHEALTHDE: 0240 Public health;
- GEOHEALTHDE: 0245 Vector born diseases;
- GEOHEALTH