AEOLIAN PROCESSES AND THE BIOSPHERE

TLDR

Aeolian processes influence the biosphere through landform evolution, biogeochemical cycles, regional climate, human health, and desertification. This review synthesizes recent literature on aeolian processes and the biosphere to integrate advances, identify management options, and set future research priorities. The authors examine spatially variable dust emissions, their global connectivity, multi‑scale impacts, drivers such as climate, soil, vegetation, and crusts, and methodological approaches including laboratory, field, modeling, and remote sensing. The integrated perspective offers actionable insights for management and highlights research priorities, particularly as climate models forecast increased aridity in many drylands.

Abstract

Aeolian processes affect the biosphere in a wide variety of contexts, including landform evolution, biogeochemical cycles, regional climate, human health, and desertification. Collectively, research on aeolian processes and the biosphere is developing rapidly in many diverse and specialized areas, but integration of these recent advances is needed to better address management issues and to set future research priorities. Here we review recent literature on aeolian processes and their interactions with the biosphere, focusing on (1) geography of dust emissions, (2) impacts, interactions, and feedbacks, (3) drivers of dust emissions, and (4) methodological approaches. Geographically, dust emissions are highly spatially variable but also provide connectivity at global scales between sources and effects, with “hot spots” being of particular concern. Recent research reveals that aeolian processes have impacts, interactions, and feedbacks at a variety of scales, including large‐scale dust transport and global biogeochemical cycles, climate mediated interactions between atmospheric dust and ecosystems, impacts on human health, impacts on agriculture, and interactions between aeolian processes and dryland vegetation. Aeolian dust emissions are driven largely by, in addition to climate, a combination of soil properties, soil moisture, vegetation and roughness, biological and physical crusts, and disturbances. Aeolian research methods span laboratory and field techniques, modeling, and remote sensing. Together these integrated perspectives on aeolian processes and the biosphere provide insights into management options and aid in identifying research priorities, both of which are increasingly important given that global climate models predict an increase in aridity in many dryland systems of the world.