Vegetation greening drives long-term dust mitigation in Eastern Asia.

ABSTRACT: Dryland vegetation dynamics play a fundamental role in dust mitigation. While weaker winds have driven recent dust decline in Eastern Asia, the long-term influence of vegetation remains overlooked. Here, using a physically based modeling approach that partitions the drivers of dust emissions across timescales, we reveal that surface wind dominates interannual variability, negatively correlated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation. On a multidecadal scale, however, vegetation cover emerges as the key driver, reducing dust emissions by 32.5% since the early 2000s-a trend projected to continue through 2100. Without these vegetation gains, dust emissions would increase under various CMIP6 projections. Vegetation contributions are uneven: gr

SUBMITTER: Fu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12913771 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature