Paleoclimate Changes and Dust Cycle Recorded by Eolian Sediments

Dear Colleagues,

Paleoclimate study is of paramount importance in unraveling the Earth's climatic history and understanding the dynamics of our planet's past. Eolian sediments, often composed of wind-blown dust and sand, serve as invaluable archives of paleoclimate and environmental change, preserving a wealth of information about temperature variations, precipitation patterns, and the frequency of extreme weather or dust storm events, thus providing critical insights into climatic variability, atmospheric circulations, and ecosystem evolution over millions of years.  By analyzing various physicochemical and paleontological proxies such as grain size, magnetism, mineralogical composition, isotopic signatures, sporopollen, and snail and sedimentary structures of eolian deposits, researchers can reconstruct past wind patterns, variations of climate factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation and moisture), and also dust activity. Thus, Cenozoic eolian sediments are crucial for refining climate models, investigating dust history, and improving our ability to predict future climate scenarios.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collate original and novel research papers devoted variously to timescale paleoclimate reconstruction, dust events during the Cenozoic period based on the eolian sediments, and the effects of dust cycles on the local/global environment. Wind-blown sediments can involve Quaternary loess, Tertiary red clay and red earth, and even paleodunes, which mainly are patched in the Asian interior arid area, e.g., Chinese Loess Plateau, Central Asia, or other worldwide wind-blown deposit area, e.g., Eastern Europe, North America. Paleoclimatic change inferred from the dust components in lacustrine and deep-sea sediments are also welcome. This SI seeks to provide insights into past climate patterns, environmental changes in different timescales based on various physicochemical, biological proxies, and the impact of dust on Earth's ecosystems, contributing to a better understanding of paleoclimatology and global dust cycle.

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

• Dating of eolian sediments (paleomagnetism, OSL, AMS ¹⁴C …..);
• Dust resources identification and tracing, dust flux and dust sediment rate;
• Quantitative methods of paleoprecipitation and paleotemperature reconstructions;
• Dust storm and climate abrupt events;
• Various time-scales (tectonic, orbital, suborbital, millennium, centennial, decadal) paleoclimate reconstructions;
• History of dust emission, transportation, deposition and its influence on past climates;
• Dust process and atmospheric circulations and its effects on ecosystem.

Prof. Dr. Yougui Song
Prof. Dr. Chaofeng Fu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• loess deposits
• wind-blown sediments
• dust provenance
• paleoclimate changes
• aeolian processes and atmospheric circulation
• dust cycle and environment effect of dust
• Quaternary, Cenozoic