caa a22 4500 46903758X CHVBK 20180323132759.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e19920301xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00139839 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00139839 The changing frequency of dust storms through time [Elektronische Daten] [A. Goudie, N. Middleton] Dust storms are major, but under-studied actors in the world's drylands. Not only are they an important manifestation of desertification and land degradation, but they also have a whole suite of important environmental impacts, including possible rainfall suppression (Maley, 1982), fertilization of offshore areas, and disturbance to satellite communications. It is therefore important to ascertain whether their frequency and extent is changing. An increasing dust-storm incidence could be both a manifestation of and a contributor to global change. By analysing long-term meteorological records for a large number of areas (the Great Plains of the USA, the USSR, Morocco, The Arabian Gulf, Australia, the Sahel-Sudan zone of Africa, China, Mongolia and Mexico) certain conclusions can be drawn. The first of these is that there is no one global pattern of dust-storm frequency trend. Some stations (e.g. in the Sahel) show a clear upward trend of great severity, others show a downward trend (e.g. Mexico City), while others show a more cyclical pattern. In many cases it is evident that essentially natural processes (precipitation totals, snow cover, wind strength) determine the frequency of dust events in any one year. It has also been possible to show the importance of runs of drought years (e.g. in the High Plains in the 1930s, and in the Sahel zone of Africa in the 1970s and 1980s). Elsewhere, however, various human activities have been significant in determining dust-storm frequency variations: the introduction of centre-pivot irrigation in the High Plains, the abstraction of water from the Owens and Mono basins in California, the disruption of surfaces by construction activity and vehicle use (e.g. in Ulan Bator, Mongolia), and the deliberate stabilisation of susceptible surfaces (e.g. the Lake Texcoco scheme in Mexico). Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992 Goudie A. Environmental Change Unit, School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, OX1 3TB, Oxford, England aut Middleton N. Environmental Change Unit, School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, OX1 3TB, Oxford, England aut Climatic Change Kluwer Academic Publishers 20/3(1992-03-01), 197-225 0165-0009 20:3<197 1992 20 10584 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139839 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139839 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Goudie A. Environmental Change Unit, School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, OX1 3TB, Oxford, England aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Middleton N. Environmental Change Unit, School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, OX1 3TB, Oxford, England aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Climatic Change Kluwer Academic Publishers 20/3(1992-03-01), 197-225 0165-0009 20:3<197 1992 20 10584 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer