A field study of the surface disturbance effects of animals and motor vehicles on aeolian sediment emission from a silty playa surface.

Dry playa surfaces can be extremely vulnerable to disturbance which breaks their surface crusts resulting in increased aeolian sand and dust emissions. Trampling by livestock and motor vehicles is an important source of this disturbance. The Hamoun Lakes in the Sistan region of Iran are a major source area of dust storms which are causing damage to infrastructure and communities.

An investigation into climatic and terrestrial drivers of dust storms in the Sistan region of Iran in the early twenty-first century.

Dust storms cause a wide range of impacts on environment, economy and human health in the Sistan region of southeastern Iran. This paper investigates long-term variability of dust activity over 23 years (1997-2019) using the Dust Storm Index (DSI) and the frequency of dust-storm days (DSD, visibility <1000 m) and assesses the associated importance of various terrestrial and climatic drivers. A dust storm corridor was identified, based on the prevailing wind direction at Zabol, including parts of the Hamoun lakes and surrounding desert in order to study the effects of vegetation cover and lake water levels on dust activity.

The effectiveness of a multi-row Tamarix windbreak in reducing aeolian erosion and sediment flux, Niatak area, Iran.

Windbreaks are barriers that are widely used to reduce wind speed and aeolian erosion. Most windbreak studies have been done in wind tunnels and generally used rigid objects rather than live plants and most of these studies report on the modification of the flow field and not on the effectiveness at reducing sediment transport. A series of experiments were conducted to monitor the effectiveness of a fourteen-rows Tamarix windbreak in the field and in particular to measure the reduction in sediment erosion and transport.

Vegetation morphologic and aerodynamic characteristics reduce aeolian erosion.

Vegetation cover is crucial to controlling aeolian erosion but highly efficient vegetation is critical. How this efficiency is influenced by vegetation response to airflow is not clear. Here we evaluate the responses of Cosmos bipinnatus and Ligustrum lucidum Ait to a range of wind speeds in a wind tunnel.