Fingerprint on Dust

Island swamps and weather stations are being used to confirm if European farming methods and climate change have worsened wind erosion in Australia.

A University of Queensland research team is tracking the history and environmental impacts of dust storms emanating from the channel
country of western Queensland.

The researchers are collecting sediments from old dust storms to build an Australian dust "fingerprint".

This fingerprint will help tell if hooved animals introduced by European farming has increased the severity of wind erosion and/ or the frequency and severity of drought.

To understand dust movements, the researchers have been digging up New Zealand mires and glaciers and Australian island swamps.

The team is senior lecturer in climatology Dr Hamish McGowan; senior research fellow for the Advanced Centre for Queensland University Isotope Research Excellence (ACQUIRE) Dr Balz Kamber; and Earth Sciences senior lecturer Dr Massimo Gasparon. Geographical sciences PhD student Samuel Marx is completing the New Zealand research.

Dr McGowan used a stainless steel tube to extract four-metre long cores of peat for analysis from steamy, snake-infested swamps on Stradbroke Island.

"Chemical and physical parameters of retrieved dust are compared to potential source areas from outback Australia, recently characterised by Dr Kamber," Dr McGowan said.

"The analysis of minute dust samples is possible because of the world-class instrumentation and laboratory space as well as technical know-how at UQ."

Moreton Island and a North Stradbroke Island sandmining lease were chosen as test sites because of their locations in a dust transport corridor and should contain environmental contamination from south-east Queensland.

Dr McGowan said atmospheric dust did more than get in your eyes, also affecting climate, air quality in most Australian cities and marine productivity in the Southern Ocean.

Queensland dust has an important role in the Southern Ocean, as marine life such as plankton have followed dust storms cross oceans searching for nutrients left behind.

Dr McGowan is also investigating meteorological controls on dustflow in south western Queensland, launching weather stations in dust storms that launch across the Tasman Sea.

More Information: http://www.gpa.uq.edu.au

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