Desert dunes transformed by end-of-century changes in wind climate

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Abstract Sand dunes in arid regions are significant mobile landforms which require adaptation and mitigation strategies for protecting human infrastructure and economic assets from encroachment, and which play a significant role in desertification and atmospheric dust emissions. Here we show how the shape, migration speed and direction of active desert dunes around the world are projected to change by the end of this century, in response to shifts in sand-moving wind regime associated with climate change under the SSP5-8.5 scenario. We find significant transformations in dune dynamics for many sand seas and dune fields across the Sahara, The Horn of Africa, the Southern Arabian Peninsula, South-Asia, China, and Australia – as well as increased potential of sand sea expansion and re-activation of dormant dune fields – which we can link to alterations in the Hadley circulation, extra-tropical cyclone activity, and monsoon systems resulting from global warming.
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Desert dunes transformed by end-of-century changes in wind climate | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Desert dunes transformed by end-of-century changes in wind climate Andreas Baas, Lucie Delobel This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1537759/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 27 Oct, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Climate Change → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Sand dunes in arid regions are significant mobile landforms which require adaptation and mitigation strategies for protecting human infrastructure and economic assets from encroachment, and which play a significant role in desertification and atmospheric dust emissions. Here we show how the shape, migration speed and direction of active desert dunes around the world are projected to change by the end of this century, in response to shifts in sand-moving wind regime associated with climate change under the SSP5-8.5 scenario. We find significant transformations in dune dynamics for many sand seas and dune fields across the Sahara, The Horn of Africa, the Southern Arabian Peninsula, South-Asia, China, and Australia – as well as increased potential of sand sea expansion and re-activation of dormant dune fields – which we can link to alterations in the Hadley circulation, extra-tropical cyclone activity, and monsoon systems resulting from global warming. Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformationDescription.pdf GEDPchangeMap.xml DP change map GERDDirchangeMap.xml RDDir change map GERatiochangeMap.xml Ratio change map GERDPchangeMap.xml RDP change map GEHadGEM3gridLines.xml HadGEM3 Grid Lines GEHadGEM3gridCellID.xml HadGEM3 Grid Cell IDs GERDPinfo.xml RDP change info GEDPinfo.xml DP change info GERatioinfo.xml Ratio change info GERDDirinfo.xml RDDir change info AdditionalSIfiles.zip Additional Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 27 Oct, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Climate Change → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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