Quantifying dust emissions from desert landforms, eastern Mojave Desert, USA

Abstract

The measurement of natural dust emissions from desert landforms is crucial in environmental hazard assessment and field checking the accuracy of global dust models. More than 500 individual dust measurements from eight common desert landforms in southern California were collected using the PI-SWERL (Portable In Situ Wind Erosion Lab). The largest emitters of dust are dry washes (13.787 to 0.007 mg m − 2 s − 1 ), dunes, playa margins, distal alluvial fans, and lacustrine beaches. Low emitters include salt-crusted playas (0.692 to 0.002 mg m − 2 s − 1 ), silt–clay-crusted playas, and desert pavements. High emissions are a function of saltating sand that bombards the surface, liberating dust-sized particles for entrainment. Low dust emissions are primarily a function of surface crusting, gravel armoring, and vegetation density. PI-SWERL measurements reveal that emission rates can vary by at least three orders of magnitude, reflecting local variability in soil texture and continuity of surface crusts. Shear-stress partitioning models can be applied to dust data measured by the PI-SWERL to account for large surface roughness features, such as vegetation. The results presented here give an approximation of the contributions to atmospheric dust loading by landforms in the Mojave Desert, and can potentially be used to improve atmospheric dust models.