Many arid grassland communities are changing from grass dominance to shrub dominance, but the mechanisms involved in this conversion process are not completely understood. Aeolian processes likely contribute to this conversion from grassland to shrubland. The purpose of this research is to provide information regarding how vegetation changes occur in an arid grassland as a result of aeolian sed...

Mathematical modelling provides an essential tool for understanding aeolian transport of dust and sand, its spatial and temporal dynamics, and its role in the earth system. As much of the crucial action takes place at or just above land surfaces, adequate representation of land-surface processes is essential. In this paper, we review progress in aeolian transport modelling during last two decad...

Aeolian processes are tightly linked to soil and vegetation change in arid and semi-arid systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Wind influences patterns of vegetation and soil within the landscape, and these patterns control wind erosion at patch to landscape scales. Aggregated at larger scales, patterns in soil and vegetation distributions influence global distributions of dust and i...

Introduction: Aeolian sediments commonly are well sorted, but aeolian megaripples are exceptions, having bimodal grain size-frequencies. Distinguishing aeolian megaripple deposits from mixed grain size fluvial deposits is important for martian sedimentary rocks, because indicators of flowing water in the martian past (if revealed by legitimate fluvial deposits) are mission drivers for rovers an...

Relatively young landforms on Mars, seen in high-resolution images acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera since March 1999, suggest the presence of sources of liquid water at shallow depths beneath the martian surface. Found at middle and high martian latitudes (particularly in the southern hemisphere), gullies within the walls of a very small number of impact craters, south p...

Thermokarst is the process whereby the thawing of ice-rich permafrost ground causes land subsidence, resulting in development of distinctive landforms. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure, but also impact hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, we present a circumpolar assessment of the distribution of thermokarst landscapes, defined as landscapes comp...

Aeolian processes occur throughout the Solar System and likely on extrasolar planets as well. Models based on data collected in boundary layer wind tunnels have contributed to understanding the physics of these processes. Planetary wind tunnels allow simulation of conditions (atmospheric pressure, density, or kinematic viscosity) on extraterrestrial bodies, and their use over several decades ha...

Introduction: A precursory glance at MGS images of the surface of Mars show an abundance of aeolian transverse ridges [1]. These ridges are located in a variety of geological terrains. Zimbelman and Wi lson [2] have separated the small-scale aeolian features of Syrtis Major into six categories: ripples associated with obstacles, ripple bands, ripple fields, ripple patches, isolated ripple patch...

Saline playas in north-western Nevada, U.S.A., remnants of pluvial periods of the Pleistocene, represent a tremendous source of unconsolidated sediments available for aeolian transport. This study investigated the transport of aqueous-soluble solutes in dust from July 1994 through June 1996 along a transect from a barren salt-encrusted playa surface (elevation"1224 m), to a former pluvial lake ...