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4.1
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Journals
Atmosphere
Special Issues
Interactions between Climate and Desertification
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Interactions between Climate and Desertification

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (24 March 2023) | Viewed by 3109

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ziqiang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Forestry in Southern China of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Interests: environmental microorganisms and climate change; relationship between forest soil and microorganism; forest hydrology; isotope hydrology; soil and water conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Guirong Hou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Interests: soil and water conservation; forestry ecological engineering; structured forest management; forest hydrology; soil ecology; forest ecosystem and climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The study of climate has been going on for decades. While there has always been a focus on temperature, ecosystems, etc. when it comes to climate change, there has been a recent shift in the priority of this issue relative to other issues, with a new focus on interactions between climate and desertification.

In light of this shift in focus, the open-access journal Atmosphere will host a Special Issue on water transport in arid regions, forest ecohydrology, regional climate change, restoration of vegetation degradation, and more. This Special Issue is also an appropriate venue for papers dealing with human thermal comfort and productivity, as recent research expands to show that desertification can do more to climate change. Ultimately, this Special Issue aims to present the latest comparable evidence on the impacts of desertification.

Raw results from subjective surveys, models, and review papers related to climate and forest hydrology in decertified regions are welcome contributions. Authors are encouraged to include sections that address future issues, opportunities, and/or concerns related to their topic in the 5-, 10-, and 20-year horizons.

Dr. Ziqiang Liu
Dr. Guirong Hou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • desertification
  • water and soil conservation
  • climate change
  • forest ecology

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 5848 KiB  
Article
Paleo-Atmospheric Precipitation Recharged to Groundwater in Middle-Latitude Deserts of Northern China
by Bing-Qi Zhu
Atmosphere 2023, 14(5), 774; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14050774 - 24 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1119
Abstract
It is a difficult and hot issue in the hydrological studies of arid areas to choose suitable methods to evaluate the recharge of atmospheric precipitation to groundwater and its response to climate change in desert areas. This study reviews the theories and problems [...] Read more.
It is a difficult and hot issue in the hydrological studies of arid areas to choose suitable methods to evaluate the recharge of atmospheric precipitation to groundwater and its response to climate change in desert areas. This study reviews the theories and problems of vadose (unsaturated)-zone tracing methods selected by predecessors in hydrological studies and takes the deserts in middle latitudes of northern China as an example to extract decadal, centennial, and millennian information of atmospheric precipitation to groundwater recharge on a regional scale since the late Holocene. The fluctuations of atmospheric precipitation and chronological sequences of desert unsaturated zone were estimated by using the chlorine mass balance (CMB) theory. It indicates that the Badain Jaran Desert in the central Alashan Plateau and the surrounding Gobi deserts have experienced fluctuations of groundwater recharge on a centennial scale during the late Holocene period from about 700 to 2000 years ago. Multiple CMB profile records can identify four periods of relative wetness (1330–1430, 1500–1620, 1700–1780, and 1950–1990) and three periods of relative drought (1430–1500, 1620–1700, and 1900–1950) over the past millennium. These records are consistent with other paleoclimatic records in the northern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and relatively correspond to those in the eastern part of China. This indicates that groundwater recharge in the Alashan Plateau broadly reflects the degree of climatic variability in northwest China over the centennial scale and may be affected by the changes in the intensity of the East Asian summer monsoon. The estimated average recharge rate of precipitation in the Alashan Plateau in the last millennium is about 1.3~2.6 mm/a, which brings new geological evidence for understanding the source of groundwater recharge in the region but is quite different from other environmental records. It should be noted that there are uncertainties in the CMB records of the vadose zone profiles, mainly due to the assumption of atmospheric Cl input in the CMB estimation and the selection of the homogeneous vadose profile (piston flow). This study suggests that this uncertainty and its error should be extensively tested in the future by comparing deterministic data (such as regional reference stations) with large-scale random atmospheric Cl input backgrounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions between Climate and Desertification)
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37 pages, 9293 KiB  
Article
Desertification and Related Climate Change in the Alashan Plateau since the Last 40 ka of the Last Glacial Period
by Bingqi Zhu and Limin Yang
Atmosphere 2023, 14(2), 384; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14020384 - 15 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1367
Abstract
Clues of climate change on the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period (40 ka) are important for revealing the mechanism of desertification of middle-latitude deserts in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Studies are still rare for the understanding of the specific relationship of [...] Read more.
Clues of climate change on the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period (40 ka) are important for revealing the mechanism of desertification of middle-latitude deserts in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Studies are still rare for the understanding of the specific relationship of climate changes between the Alashan Plateau and the global. Based on a systematic and comparative analysis of the existing research in China and the international academic community, this paper reviews the environmental evolution history of the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period from the records of paleo-environment and geomorphological characteristics in different deserts of the plateau (e.g., Badanjilin, Tenggeli, and Wulanbuhe). From about 40 ka to the end of the last glacial maximum, the climate on the plateau was wetter than it is today, and to the end of the Pleistocene, the climate was generally dry and the aeolian activities were enhanced. However, the climate was arid during the whole last glacial period in the Wulanbuhe Desert, evidently different from the overall pattern of the plateau. The Tenggeli Desert was characterized by an arid climate in the early Holocene. The most controversial events for the Alashan Plateau are the drought events in the middle Holocene in the Badanjilin Desert. The role and impact of the westerlies and the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) systems on the climate change of the desert and even the whole plateau is a vexed question that brings different views in different periods. There is still a lack of definite evidence representing the events of global environmental change that occurred on the plateau during the discussed period. The distinctive morphology of dune mountains and the distribution of sand dunes are mutually indicative of the direction and energy of wind systems on the plateau. It is suggested that appropriate wind energy is the significant key to the desertification in these middle-latitude deserts on the plateau. From a global-scale review of climate change, the desertification of the modern-scale sandy desert landscapes on the Alashan Plateau is generally related to the global glacial period and the cold and dry climate during the past 40 ka. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions between Climate and Desertification)
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