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Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications

Two sediment records of dust deposition from Fish Lake, in southern Colorado, offer a new perspective on southwest United States (Southwest) aridity and dustiness over the last ~3000 years. Micro scanning X-ray fluorescence and grain size analysis provide separate measures of wind-deposited dust in...

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Autores principales: Routson, Cody C., Overpeck, Jonathan T., Woodhouse, Connie A., Kenney, William F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757576/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26886350
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149573
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author Routson, Cody C.
Overpeck, Jonathan T.
Woodhouse, Connie A.
Kenney, William F.
author_facet Routson, Cody C.
Overpeck, Jonathan T.
Woodhouse, Connie A.
Kenney, William F.
author_sort Routson, Cody C.
collection PubMed
description Two sediment records of dust deposition from Fish Lake, in southern Colorado, offer a new perspective on southwest United States (Southwest) aridity and dustiness over the last ~3000 years. Micro scanning X-ray fluorescence and grain size analysis provide separate measures of wind-deposited dust in the lake sediment. Together these new records confirm anomalous dustiness in the 19(th) and 20(th) centuries, associated with recent land disturbance, drought, and livestock grazing. Before significant anthropogenic influences, changes in drought frequency and aridity also generated atmospheric dust loading. Medieval times were associated with high levels of dustiness, coincident with widespread aridity. These records indicate the Southwest is naturally prone to dustiness. As global and regional temperatures rise and the Southwest shifts toward a more arid landscape, the Southwest will likely become dustier, driving negative impacts on snowpack and water availability, as well as human health.
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spelling pubmed-47575762016-02-26 Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications Routson, Cody C. Overpeck, Jonathan T. Woodhouse, Connie A. Kenney, William F. PLoS One Research Article Two sediment records of dust deposition from Fish Lake, in southern Colorado, offer a new perspective on southwest United States (Southwest) aridity and dustiness over the last ~3000 years. Micro scanning X-ray fluorescence and grain size analysis provide separate measures of wind-deposited dust in the lake sediment. Together these new records confirm anomalous dustiness in the 19(th) and 20(th) centuries, associated with recent land disturbance, drought, and livestock grazing. Before significant anthropogenic influences, changes in drought frequency and aridity also generated atmospheric dust loading. Medieval times were associated with high levels of dustiness, coincident with widespread aridity. These records indicate the Southwest is naturally prone to dustiness. As global and regional temperatures rise and the Southwest shifts toward a more arid landscape, the Southwest will likely become dustier, driving negative impacts on snowpack and water availability, as well as human health. Public Library of Science 2016-02-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4757576/ /pubmed/26886350 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149573 Text en © 2016 Routson et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Routson, Cody C.
Overpeck, Jonathan T.
Woodhouse, Connie A.
Kenney, William F.
Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications
title Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications
title_full Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications
title_fullStr Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications
title_full_unstemmed Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications
title_short Three Millennia of Southwestern North American Dustiness and Future Implications
title_sort three millennia of southwestern north american dustiness and future implications
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757576/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26886350
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149573
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