PM10 dust emission in the Erenhot-Huailai zone of northern China based on model simulation

The Erenhot-Huailai zone, as an important dust emission source area in northern China affects the air quality of Beijing City, Tianjin City, and Hebei Province and human activities in this area have a profound impact on surface dust emission. In order to explore the main source areas of surface dust emission and quantify the impacts of human activities on surface dust emission, we investigated the surface dust emission on different land types of the Erenhot-Huailai zone by model simulation, field observation, and comparative analysis. The results showed that the average annual inhalable atmospheric particles (PM10) dust emission fluxes in arid grassland, Hunshandake Sandy Land, semi-arid grassland, semi-arid agro-pastoral area, dry sub-humid agro-pastoral area, and semi-humid agro-pastoral area were 4.41, 0.71, 3.64, 1.94, 0.24, and 0.14 t/hm2, respectively, and the dust emission in these areas occurred mainly from April to May. Due to the influence of human activities on surface dust emissions, dust emission fluxes from different land types were 1.66-4.41 times greater than those of their background areas, and dust emission fluxes from the main dust source areas were 1.66-3.89 times greater than those of their background areas. According to calculation, the amount of PM10 dust emission influenced by human disturbance accounted for up to 58% of the total dust emission in the study area. In addition, the comparative analysis of model simulation and field observation results showed that the simulated and observed dust emission fluxes were relatively close to each other, with differences ranging from 0.01 to 0.21 t/hm2 in different months, which indicated that the community land model version 4.5 (CLM4.5) had a high accuracy. In conclusion, model simulation results have important reference significance for identifying dust source areas and quantifying the contribution of human activities to surface dust emissions.