Zhen-Ting Wang, Ying-Ying Wu, Yu Ren
Aeolian desertification is the dominant desertification type in northern China. The robust relations between climate variables and desertification indicators must be established while predicting the future desertification trends by using climate models. Vegetations are sensitive to climate change and desertification simultaneously. A basic feature of aeolian desertification process in northern China is that aeolian sand and dust activities proceed the vegetation growth season in the same year. In this study, such a lagging effect of desertification to climate change is described by the wind erosion and vegetation growth models. A non-dimensional aeolian desertification index composed of wind speed, precipitation and temperature is constructed. Its applicability is confirmed by the temporal trends of dust storm frequency in the dust source regions.