Production, transport and deposition of aeolian dust from land to sea closely interact with regional environment and global climate. This Special Issue addresses transport of aeolian dust from the Asian inland to the Loess Plateau and North Pacific Ocean and their possible links to oceanic ecosystem, global climate and even human activity, over various timescales. The papers in this volume are multidisciplinary in nature and include sedimentology, mineralogy, geochemistry, environmental magnetism and climate modelling on multi-timescales from interannual, glacial–interglacial to tectonic timescales. Based on modern observation, geological records and modelling, this Special Issue offers new insights especially into aeolian provenance, dynamics controls on dust production, a novel marine aeolian proxy, as well as long-term aeolian input to the marginal basins of NE Asia and its influence on oceanic productivity. This issue provides a good example for future comprehensive studies of source-to-sink processes of Asian dust from land to sea.

The Tarim Basin is the major source of aeolian dust in the northern hemisphere. Glacial activity in the mountains, transportation by rivers and homogenization by wind are believed to be responsible for dust production within the basin. However, the major source(s) and homogenization process(es) are not clear. Moreover, provenance studies on fine fractions have never been conducted. Here, we measured electron spin resonance (ESR) signal intensity and the crystallinity index of quartz in fine (< 16 μm) and coarse (> 64 μm) fractions of river sediments, dry lake sediments and mountain loess to examine the process(es) that produce aeolian dust. The result suggests that the coarse fraction of the river sediment was derived from the bedrock in the drainage area. The ESR signal intensity and crystallinity index of the fine fraction of river sediments from the Tian Shan Mountains and mountainous rivers in the westernmost Kunlun and Pamir mountains are also similar to the coarse fraction, suggesting the same sources. However, the ESR signal intensity and crystallinity index of the fine fraction of river sediments from the Kunlun Mountains are different from the coarse fraction and converge towards values close to the average for the fine fraction of river sediments and mountain loess. Convergence of the ESR and crystallinity index values for the fine fraction of river sediments from the Kunlun Mountains can be explained by contamination of the river sediments by aeolian dust. The convergent values resulted from the homogenization of fine detrital material by repeated recycling within the basin.

We investigated the microscopic mineral characteristics of modern eolian dust particulates and the trace-element compositions of the siliciclastic fractions of these samples, collected from the Philippine Sea in 2014 and 2015, and conducted an air mass backwards trajectory analysis of dust particulates in the spring and winter of 2015, to better constrain the provenances and transport dynamics of dust delivered to this region. The microscopic minerals show obvious signatures of dust deposition and physical abrasion, indicating long-distance wind transport from the Asian deserts. The trace-element compositions (Zr–Th–Sc) display a binary mixture of eolian materials derived from the eastern Asian deserts and the central Asian deserts, which is similar to the result of the Sr–Nd isotopic compositions of modern sediment trap sediments collected on the Benham Rise in 2015. We demonstrate that modern dust sediments in the Philippine Sea primarily originate from the Ordos Desert (generally > 80%), while the contributions of the Taklimakan Desert and the Badain Jaran Desert are small. Eolian dust particulates raised from source regions are predominantly transported to the Philippine Sea by the East Asian winter monsoon, but not by the westerlies. In addition, our results indicate that increased precipitation in the source regions can result in relatively low dust fluxes in the Philippine Sea, and there is a period of 6–7 days for eolian dust originating from source areas to be delivered to the Philippine Sea.

Based on dust storm frequency (DSF) data from the China Meteorological Administration, Arctic sea-ice concentration (SIC) data from the Hadley Centre, and atmospheric reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), temporal variations and regime shifts of East Asian DSF and Arctic SIC during 1961–2015 are revealed, and the possible relationship between them is explored. The results show that East Asian DSF in spring is closely associated with the preceding winter SIC from the northern Greenland Sea to the Barents Sea (20° W–60° E, 74.5° N–78.5° N). In the past half-century, both East Asian DSF and Arctic SIC have shown significant declining trends, with consistent regime shifts in the early 1980s. Further statistical analyses indicate that the abrupt decrease of East Asian DSF in spring may be attributed to the concurrent sharp loss of Arctic SIC in the preceding winter. It is the loss of Arctic SIC that causes the atmospheric circulation anomalies downstream by stimulating a Rossby wave train, resulting in decelerated wind speed, dampened vertical wind shear and restrained synoptic-scale disturbances over the dust source region, eventually leading to the decline in East Asian DSF over decadal timescales.

Atmospheric supply of iron (Fe) to the ocean has been suggested to regulate marine productivity in large parts of the world’s ocean. However, there are still large uncertainties regarding how the atmospheric inputs of dissolved Fe (DFe) influence the seawater DFe concentrations and thus net primary production (NPP). Here, we use an atmospheric chemistry model and two ocean biogeochemistry models with high (Model H) and low (Model L) sensitivities to atmospheric sources of DFe to explore the responses of ocean biogeochemistry to different types of atmospheric inputs of DFe: mineral dust and combustion aerosols. When both Fe content in mineral dust of 3.5% and Fe solubility of 2% are prescribed in sensitivity simulations, the ocean models overestimate DFe concentration in the surface ocean downwind from the North African and East Asian dust plumes. Considering different degrees of atmospheric Fe processing reduces the overestimates of DFe concentration in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. The two ocean biogeochemistry models show substantially different magnitudes of responses to the atmospheric input of DFe. The more detailed Model H shows a much higher sensitivity of NPP to the change in combustion aerosols than to mineral dust, regardless of relative inputs of the sedimentary sources. This finding suggests that pyrogenic Fe-containing aerosols are more important sources of atmospheric bioavailable Fe for marine productivity than would be expected from the small amount of DFe deposition, especially in the Pacific and Southern oceans.

Aeolian dust deposits from continent and ocean have been extensively investigated to reflect past changes in source aridity and atmospheric circulations. Aeolian flux (AF) as a quantitative dust proxy has been widely used in both palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and numerical simulation. However, available AF data on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) is too limited to assess the temporal–spatial variations at glacial–interglacial timescales, and therefore cannot be used as robust input parameters in palaeoclimate models. Here we investigate eight loess profiles along two N–S-aligned transects on the CLP to quantitatively estimate the AF variations over the last glacial–interglacial cycle. We first establish a refined chronological framework based on optically stimulated luminescence chronology and pedostratigraphic correlation. AF was then estimated by multiplying the sedimentation rate and bulk density. The results show that the AF increases from 2–18 g cm−2 ka−1 in the southeastern CLP to 14–105 g cm−2 ka−1 in the northwestern CLP. At glacial–interglacial scales, the AF varies from 2–20 g cm−2 ka−1 during the last interglacial to 8–105 g cm−2 ka−1 in the last glaciation. Due to more spatial coverage and better age constraints, our AF data can be used to refine other AF datasets and to improve the proxy–model comparison.

It has been suggested that dust generation was closely linked to the development of global ice sheets and/or cooling. This feature has allowed Asian dust to be a potential chronostratigraphic tool in North Pacific Ocean (NPO) sediments. The orbital-scale age control in NPO sediments is usually established by adjusting the benthic-foraminiferal δ18O to the global δ18O stack (LR04). However, it would become difficult if the sediments did not contain enough foraminifera. This study investigates Sr and Nd isotopes, trace elements, mineralogy and grain size of the ‘operationally defined aeolian dust’ (ODED) extracted from the sediments recovered at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) site 1209B on the Shatsky Rise in the NPO covering the past five glacial–interglacial cycles. The geochemical results show that the ODED at site 1209B is actually a mixture of Asian dust and volcanic ash. The variation of Nd isotope mimics the cycles of glacial–interglacial ice sheets as revealed by the global benthic foraminifera’s oxygen isotope stack (LR04) over the past 500 ka. The low (high) ϵNd values corresponded with the cool (warm) periods. We propose that ϵNd variation reflects the evolving aeolian dust in site 1209 sediments. The excellent agreement between ϵNd values at site 1209B and LR04 stack over the past 500 ka allows establishing the orbital-timescale age control by tuning ϵNd to the LR04 curve. We thus propose that Nd isotope provides a chronostratigraphic technique in NPO sediments, especially for sediments with a limited amount of foraminifera.

The dust cycle plays an important role in the long-term evolution of the climate and environment. In this paper, an improved climate model including aerosol processes was used to carry out a set of sensitivity experiments and comparative analyses of the effects of high-latitude ice-sheet extent and abnormal dust erosion, as well as Earth’s orbital parameters and atmospheric greenhouse gas content, on dust activities during the last glacial maximum. The comparative analysis found that incorporating the abnormal surface erosion factor alone could increase dust emissions by 2.77-fold and 3.77-fold of the present-day global and Asian dust emissions, respectively. The high-latitude ice-sheet factor caused global dust emissions to increase by 1.25-fold that of the present day. Sensitivity experiments showed that increased surface erosion in Asia during the last glacial maximum made the greatest contribution to the increased dust emissions in Asia, followed by the high-latitude ice-sheet factor, while the contributions of the greenhouse gas content and orbital parameters were relatively weak. Strong dust emissions during the glacial period were therefore not only dependent on the development of the high-latitude ice sheets but were strongly associated with the underlying surface characteristics of local dust source regions.

The North Pacific Ocean (NPO) has received abundant aeolian dust transported by westerlies from the Asian inland. The aeolian components preserved in NPO sediments record information on palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes in Asian source areas at different timescales. Previous studies have systematically investigated the source–sink effect of aeolian dust using the sedimentology, geochemistry, isotope and magnetic methods. In this study, we focus more on recent developments of aeolian signals in NPO sediments obtained by magnetic approaches. Generally, aeolian components contain a mixture of magnetite, maghemite, hematite and goethite of different origins. Magnetic properties (mineral category, concentration and particle size) of these minerals are modulated primarily by climatic/environmental conditions in source areas and sorting effects during the transportation process. Compared with the other methods, magnetic measurements have the advantages of non-sample destruction, high sensitivity and high efficiency. Finally, future studies are also discussed to address the importance of magnetism for tracing the dynamic transportation processes of the aeolian dust.

We reconstruct the provenance of aluminosilicate sediment deposited in Ulleung Basin, Japan Sea, over the last 12 Ma at Site U1430 drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 346. Using multivariate partitioning techniques (Q-mode factor analysis, multiple linear regressions) applied to the major, trace and rare earth element composition of the bulk sediment, we identify and quantify four aluminosilicate components (Taklimakan, Gobi, Chinese Loess and Korean Peninsula), and model their mass accumulation rates. Each of these end-members, or materials from these regions, were present in the top-performing models in all tests. Material from the Taklimakan Desert (50–60 % of aluminosilicate contribution) is the most abundant end-member through time, while Chinese Loess and Gobi Desert components increase in contribution and flux in the Plio-Pleistocene. A Korean Peninsula component is lowest in abundance when present, and its occurrence reflects the opening of the Tsushima Strait at c. 3 Ma. Variation in dust source regions appears to track step-wise Asian aridification influenced by Cenozoic global cooling and periods of uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. During early stages of the evolution of the East Asian Monsoon, the Taklimakan Desert was the major source of dust to the Pacific. Continued uplift of the Tibetan Plateau may have influenced the increase in aeolian supply from the Gobi Desert and Chinese Loess Plateau into the Pleistocene. Consistent with existing records from the Pacific Ocean, these observations of aeolian fluxes provide more detail and specificity regarding the evolution of different Asian source regions through the latest Cenozoic.

Aeolian dust input exerts significant influence on oceanic biogeochemical cycles and further potentially controls atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However, the possible link between long-term aeolian dust supply and primary productivity in the western North Pacific remains poorly understood. Here, we present a comprehensive study of major and trace elements and total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations of sediments from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1430 in the southern Japan Sea, in order to reconstruct oceanic palaeoproductivity evolution and test its possible link to Asian dust input since 4 Ma. Palaeoproductivity proxies indicate remarkable increases in productivity at ∼3–2 Ma followed by high-frequency oscillations in productivity since 1.2 Ma. We suggest that higher dust-derived iron supply from Central Asia at 3–2 Ma, which was likely driven by the growth of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, could account for enhanced primary productivity and export production in the Japan Sea. Such increased oceanic palaeoproductivity could enhance organic carbon burial, which might contribute to the decrease in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and provide a positive feedback to the global cooling. However, the Tsushima Warm Current (TSWC) intrusion via the southern Tsushima Strait, which was controlled by glacioeustatic sea level changes, has been the principal cause of the rapid changes in primary productivity and benthic redox condition since 1.2 Ma, regardless of continuously increased Asian dust input.