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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Desert Climate and Environmental Change: From Past to Present
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Desert Climate and Environmental Change: From Past to Present

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 829

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bing Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: desert environmental evolution; modern earth surface processes; quantification of paleoclimatic factors; human–environment interaction
Dr. Xiaokang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Planetary Aeolian Research Institute, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
Interests: aeolian geomorphology; quaternary geology; environmental archeology; climate change
Dr. Zhiyong Ding

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Interests: paleoclimatology; paleogeology hazard; geological carbon sequestration; fluvial–aeolian interaction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Drylands constitute approximately 41% of the Earth's land surface, with vast expanses dominated by deserts, including aeolian sand dunes, sand sheets, and desert steppes. As major sources of dust and key pathways for dust transmission, deserts significantly impact regional socioeconomic development and global ecological systems through dust emissions and aeolian processes. Currently, these regions are increasingly affected by unprecedented global changes and human activities. By analyzing various physicochemical and paleontological proxies from geological archives and integrating multi-variable modern meteorological data within desert regions, researchers can reconstruct past and present climate and environmental changes, as well as identify the potential mechanisms driving these shifts. This research is crucial for understanding regional responses to global change.

The aim of this Special Issue is to gather original and innovative research papers that focus on the desert climate and environmental changes from the past to the present, utilizing aeolian sediments, dust materials, and observational data. This Special Issue seeks to offer new insights into the formation and evolution of aeolian geomorphology, past climate and environmental patterns, environmental archeology, human–environment interactions, and climate change impacts on desert regions across various timescales, including the Cenozoic, Late Quaternary, and modern periods. The ultimate goal is to enhance our understanding of desert environmental evolution and its responses to global and regional changes.

We encourage the submission of research manuscripts which focus on, but are not limited to, the discussion of the following topics:

  • Aeolian Geomorphology: Studies on wind-driven processes shaping desert landscapes; research on dune formation, migration, and stabilization; investigations into wind-induced soil erosion and its environmental impacts.
  • Quaternary Geology and Environmental Evolution: Studies on the evolution and dynamics of desert climates and environments during the Quaternary; research on historical desertification triggered by human activity; investigations into modern aeolian activities and dust emissions, as well as future trajectories.
  • Environmental Archeology and Human–Environment Interaction: Studies on human impacts on desert ecosystems throughout history and modern times; explorations of how ancient human communities adapted to desert environments; research on archeological findings that provide insights into human–environment interactions within desert regions.
  • Climate Change Impacts: Studies on the spatiotemporal patterns and quantitative methods of climatic factors in desert regions; investigations into extreme climatic and environmental events during geological, historical, and modern periods; research on modeling future climate scenarios and their potential impacts on desert regions.

By integrating these diverse research directions, this Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of desert climates and environments, contributing valuable knowledge for sustainable development and environmental protection in arid regions.

Dr. Bing Liu
Dr. Xiaokang Liu
Dr. Zhiyong Ding
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

  • desert environmental evolution
  • modern processes on Earth's surface
  • quantification of paleoclimatic factors
  • aeolian geomorphology
  • desert quaternary geology
  • human–environment interaction
  • environmental archeology
  • aeolian activity and dust/sandstorm

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 6912 KiB  
Article
The Interannual Cyclicity of Precipitation in Xinjiang During the Past 70 Years and Its Contributing Factors
by Wenjie Ma, Xiaokang Liu, Shasha Shang, Zhen Wang, Yuyang Sun, Jian Huang, Mengfei Ma, Meihong Ma and Liangcheng Tan
Atmosphere 2025, 16(5), 629; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16050629 - 21 May 2025
Viewed by 27
Abstract
Precipitation cyclicity plays a crucial role in regional water supply and climate predictions. In this study, we used observational data from 34 representative meteorological stations in the Xinjiang region, a major part of inland arid China, to characterize the interannual cyclicity of regional [...] Read more.
Precipitation cyclicity plays a crucial role in regional water supply and climate predictions. In this study, we used observational data from 34 representative meteorological stations in the Xinjiang region, a major part of inland arid China, to characterize the interannual cyclicity of regional precipitation from 1951 to 2021 and analyze its contributing factors. The results indicated that the mean annual precipitation in Xinjiang (MAP_XJ) was dominated by a remarkably increasing trend over the past 70 years, which was superimposed by two bands of interannual cycles of approximately 3 years with explanatory variance of 56.57% (Band I) and 6–7 years with explanatory variance of 23.38% (Band II). This is generally consistent with previous studies on the cyclicity of precipitation in Xinjiang for both seasonal and annual precipitation. We analyzed the North Tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperature (NTASST), El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Arctic Oscillation (AO), and Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) as potential forcing factors that show similar interannual cycles and may contribute to the identified precipitation variability. Two approaches, multivariate linear regression and the Random Forest model, were employed to ascertain the relative significance of each factor influencing Bands I and II, respectively. The multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that the AO index contributed the most to Band I, with a significance score of −0.656, whereas the ENSO index with a one-year lead (ENSO−1yr) played a dominant role in Band II (significance score = 0.457). The Random Forest model also suggested that the AO index exhibited the highest significance score (0.859) for Band I, whereas the AO index with a one-year lead (AO−1yr) had the highest significance score (0.876) for Band II. Overall, our findings highlight the necessity of employing different methods that consider both the linear and non-linear response of climate variability to driving factors crucial for future climate prediction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desert Climate and Environmental Change: From Past to Present)
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17 pages, 6051 KiB  
Article
Construction and Analysis of the Ecological Security Pattern in Territorial Space in Shaanxi of the Yellow River Basin, China
by Zhengyao Liu, Jing Huang, Xiaokang Liu, Yonghong Li and Yiping He
Atmosphere 2025, 16(2), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16020217 - 14 Feb 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 465
Abstract
In the context of rapid urbanization and extreme climate change globally, balancing ecological resources and economic development for land spatial planning has become one of the pressing issues that need to be addressed. This study proposes a composite model to construct a spatial [...] Read more.
In the context of rapid urbanization and extreme climate change globally, balancing ecological resources and economic development for land spatial planning has become one of the pressing issues that need to be addressed. This study proposes a composite model to construct a spatial ecological security pattern. It identifies restoration areas with different risk levels based on the spatial distribution of land use, offering suggestions for optimizing spatial configuration. Focusing on the central Shaanxi region of the Yellow River Basin in China, ecological sources are identified by integrating ecological factors, and ecological corridors and restoration zones are extracted using the minimum cumulative resistance difference and circuit theory. The results indicate significant improvements in ecological quality and desertification in the study area from 2000 to 2020. Currently, the core area covers 51,649.71 km2, accounting for 62.18% of all landscape types; the total ecological source area covers 31,304.88 km2, representing 18.84% of the entire area. These ecological source areas are mainly distributed in the northern Loess Plateau and the southern mountainous regions. The area has 26 important ecological corridors, identifying 16 ecological pinch points and 12 ecological barriers, presenting an ecological security pattern characterized by a grid-like structure in the northern region and a dispersed pattern in the southern region. Additionally, 273.72 km2 of ecological restoration priority areas and 197.98 square kilometers of ecological restoration encouragement areas are proposed as key planning regions for ecological environmental protection. This study provides references for optimizing spatial configuration to promote the sustainable development of urban and rural living environments in the Yellow River Basin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desert Climate and Environmental Change: From Past to Present)
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