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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Interdisciplinary Climate Studies
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1536395
This article is part of the Research Topic Climate Change Impacts on Arctic Ecosystems and Associated Climate Feedbacks View all 7 articles

Dust in the Arctic: a brief review of feedbacks and interactions between climate change, aeolian dust and ecosystems

Provisionally accepted
Outi Meinander Outi Meinander 1*Andreas Uppstu Andreas Uppstu 1Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova 2,3Christine Groot Zwaaftink Christine Groot Zwaaftink 4Christian Juncher Jørgensen, Christian Juncher Jørgensen, 5Alexander Baklanov, alexander.baklanov@nbi.ku.dk, Alexander Baklanov, alexander.baklanov@nbi.ku.dk, Alexander Baklanov, alexander.baklanov@nbi.ku.dk, Alexander Baklanov, alexander.baklanov@nbi.ku.dk, 6Adam Kristensson Adam Kristensson 7Andreas Massling Andreas Massling 5Mikhail Sofiev Mikhail Sofiev 1
  • 1 Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
  • 2 Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague 6, Prague, Czechia
  • 3 Agricultural University of Iceland, Borgarnes, Iceland
  • 4 Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway
  • 5 Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
  • 6 Department of Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 7 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Lund University, Lund, Skane County, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Climatic feedbacks and ecosystem impacts related to dust in the Arctic include direct radiative forcing (absorption and scattering), indirect radiative forcing (via clouds and cryosphere), semidirect effects of dust on meteorological parameters, effects on atmospheric chemistry, as well as impacts on terrestrial, marine, freshwater, and cryospheric ecosystems. This review discusses our recent understanding on dust emissions and their long-range transport routes, deposition, and ecosystem effects in the Arctic. Furthermore, it demonstrates feedback mechanisms and interactions between climate change, atmospheric dust, and Arctic ecosystems.

    Keywords: Dust, climate, Arctic, ecosystem, Atmosphere

    Received: 28 Nov 2024; Accepted: 05 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Meinander, Uppstu, Dagsson-Waldhauserova, Groot Zwaaftink, Juncher Jørgensen,, Alexander Baklanov, alexander.baklanov@nbi.ku.dk,, Kristensson, Massling and Sofiev. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Outi Meinander, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.