Synergistic soil, land use, and climate influences on wind erosion on the Colorado Plateau: Implications for management

Authors: NAUMAN, TRAVIS - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA); MUNSON, SETH - Us Geological Survey (USGS); DHITAL, SAROJ - New Mexico State University; WEBB, NICHOLAS - New Mexico State University; DUNIWAY, MICHAEL - New Mexico State University

Submitted to: Science of the Total Environment
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/30/2023
Publication Date: 6/1/2023
Citation: Nauman, T., Munson, S., Dhital, S., Webb, N., Duniway, M. 2023. Synergistic soil, land use, and climate influences on wind erosion on the Colorado Plateau: Implications for management. Science of the Total Environment. 893. Article 164605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164605.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164605

Interpretive Summary: Two decades of drought in the southwestern USA are spurring concerns about increases in wind erosion, dust emissions, and associated impacts on ecosystems, agriculture, human health, and water supply. Previouis studies have shown that erosion is sensitive to land disturbance and related to bare soil exposure as well as drought. Over hundreds to thousands of years, dust deposition records indicate more correspondence with both historic disturbance and pre-historic periods with more general changes that increase erodible sediment supply including glacial transitions and eras with more flooding. In this study, we use monitoring data from passive aeolian sediment traps from 2017 to 2020 near Moab UT, field observations of land use, and spatially scalable climate, soil, and vegetation data to better understand the context and influence of cattle grazing, oil and gas well pads, and other anthropogenic surface disturbances that drive both exposure of bare soil and increased erodible sediment supply on the Colorado Plateau. Disturbed areas with low soil calcium carbonate content yielded high sediment transport in dry years, but notably areas with little disturbance and low bare soil exposure had much less activity. Cattle grazing had the largest land use association with wind erosion, with analyses suggesting that both forage utilization and trampling from cattle could be drivers. The amount and distribution of bare soil exposure from remote sensing products proved very helpful in mapping erosion, and new predictive maps informed by field data are presented to help depict spatial patterns of wind erosion activity. Our results suggest that despite the magnitude of the current drought, minimizing surface disturbance in vulnerable soils can mitigate a large portion of dust emissions.

Technical Abstract: Two decades of drought in the southwestern USA are spurring concerns about increases in wind erosion, dust emissions, and associated impacts on ecosystems, agriculture, human health, and water supply. Different avenues of investigation into primary drivers of wind erosion and dust have yielded mixed results depending on the spatial and temporal sensitivity of the evidence. Modern field and remote sensing studies show erosion is sensitive to land disturbance and related to bare soil exposure as well as drought. However, long-term dust deposition studies (e.g. lake sediment cores) report more correspondence with both historic disturbance and pre-historic periods with more general changes that increase erodible sediment supply including glacial transitions and eras with more flooding. We use extensive monitoring results from passive aeolian sediment traps from 2017 to 2020 near Moab UT, field observations of land use, and spatially scalable climate, soil, and vegetation data to better understand the context and influence of cattle grazing, oil and gas well pads, and other anthropogenic surface disturbances that drive both exposure of bare soil and increased erodible sediment supply on the Colorado Plateau. Disturbed areas with low soil calcium carbonate content yielded high sediment transport in dry years, but notably areas with little disturbance and low bare soil exposure had much less activity. Cattle grazing had the largest land use association with erosional activity with analyses suggesting that both herbivory and trampling from cattle could be drivers. The amount and distribution of bare soil exposure from new sub-annual fractional cover remote sensing products proved very helpful in mapping erosion, and new predictive maps informed by field data are presented to help depict spatial patterns of wind erosion activity. Our results suggest that despite the magnitude of the current drought, minimizing surface disturbance in vulnerable soils can mitigate a large portion of dust emissions.