Salt dust storm in the Ebinur Lake region: its 50-year dynamic changes and response to climate changes and human activities

Salt dust storm can lead to natural environmental deterioration including air, water and soil pollution. Besides, it can cause equipments corrosion and sicknesses of both human beings and animals. Therefore, prevention and control of salt dust storm have indeed become an important task for both scholars and the government. 

The Ebinur Lake region has vast area of dry lakebeds where the lacustrine facies consists of abundant salt-rich loose sediments with low vegetation coverage and high frequency of strong winds. Under such conditions, with abundant dust source and strong wind power, this area has become one of the main sources of salt dust in Central Asia. Investigating the holistic developing process and evolution trends of salt dust storm in the Ebinur Lake region and further revealing how salt dust storm responds to climate changes and human activities have important significance for guiding ecologic and environmental construction, disaster prevention and control, as well as the institution of sustainable development policies for this area. 

Therefore, the dynamic changes characteristics of salt dust storm in the Ebinur Lake were investigated using the monitoring data during 1957–2007 of atmospheric dust storm and floating dust fromfour meteorological stations surrounding the dry lakebeds, and the gray correlation analysis method was used to calculate the correlation degree between annual dust storm days and meteorological and socioeconomic factors.  

The results showed that salt dust storm in the Ebinur Lake region presented a fluctuating process during 1957–2007, in which 1975 and 2000 were the two cut-off points. During 1975–2000, there were very frequent storms, and the average annual number of salt dust storm days was 10–48, while the average annual number of storm days was not more than 12 both before 1975 and after 2000. The annual variation of salt dust storm displayed a double-peak pattern, of which storm in spring accounted for 62–90 %of the total dust storm days of a year, and that in autumn accounted for 7%–13%. Among the meteorological factors, strong winds had the greatest impact on salt dust storm, followed by temperature and precipitation. For the anthropogenic factors, agricultural acreage exhibited the strongest influence on salt dust storm, followed by lake surface area and population number, while livestock number showed the smallest effect. 

This study was published in Natural Hazards in June 2015.