[1] Stable nitrogen isotopic determination of particulate organic matter over the eastern North Atlantic in spring 2000 reveal a region of low natural abundance of N relative to N between 26 N and 32 N along 20 W. This light isotopic signal, together with phytopigment data and persistently elevated nitrate to phosphate ratios in the upper thermocline, suggest that nitrogen fixation provides a l...

Introduction: In future human exploration of Mars, many challenges face us. Mars is a dusty planet and dust and windblown particulates will present one of the most significant difficulties [1]. The dust and granular regolith will challenge materials, machines, and people. Our experience with dust-covered astronauts on the Moon and with landers and rovers on Mars suggests that significant effort...

[1] The Bodélé depression of northern Chad is considered one of the world’s largest sources of atmospheric mineral dust. Mineral composition of such transported dust is essential to our understanding of climate forcing, mineralogy of dust sources, aerosol optical properties, and mineral deposition to Amazon forests. In this study we examine hyperspectral information acquired over the Bodélé by ...

BACKGROUND Agricultural workers are exposed to airborne pollutants, including organic and inorganic (mineral) dusts. OBJECTIVES Lung autopsy specimens from consecutive coroner's cases of Hispanic males in Fresno County, California, (n = 112) were obtained to determine whether mineral dust exposure in agricultural work leads to pneumoconiosis. METHODS The left lung was fixed by inflation. We...

Central East Antarctic ice cores preserve stratigraphic records of mineral dust originating from remote sources in the Southern Hemisphere, and represent useful indicators of climatic variations on glacial-interglacial time scales. The peripheries of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, where ice-free areas with the potential to emit dust exist, have been less explored from this point of view. Here, w...

Soil aeolian erodibility is the efficiency with which soil produces dust for a given meteorological forcing. Quantifying soil erodibility is crucial for forecasting dust events and the climatological distribution and forcing of dust. We use long term station observations and satellite indices of mineral dust to ascertain the role of regional topography, geomorphology, and hydrology in controlli...

Study was carried out to assess the impact of cement dust on some selected plant species around industrial area. Deposition effect of cement dust on pigmentation was studied in Azadirachta indica, Pongamia pinnata, Delonix regia, Polyalthia longifolia and Ficus religiosa. Sampling was done about 500 meter distance difference from the cement industry and measurements were taken for all the plant...

The pathology and dust content of lungs from 261 coalminers in relation to the appearances of their chest radiographs taken within four years of death were examined. Radiological opacities of coalworkers' pneumoconiosis were more profuse the more dust was retained in lungs. Among the men who had mined low rank coal--that is, with a relatively high proportion of ash--the increase in profusion wa...

We investigate the influence of mineral dust on tropospheric chemistry in the present climate at the global scale. The analysis examines the effects of dust on photolysis and heterogeneous uptake, operating independently and together. In numerical experiments the size-resolved, time-varying mineral dust distribution predicted by the global Dust Entrainment And Deposition (DEAD) model perturbs t...

Soil erosion redistributes soil organic carbon (SOC) within terrestrial ecosystems, to the atmosphere and oceans. Dust export is an essential component of the carbon (C) and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) budget because wind erosion contributes to the C cycle by removing selectively SOC from vast areas and transporting C dust quickly offshore; augmenting the net loss of C from terrestrial systems. Howe...