An aerial photo of a plow moving over a dirt field and kicking up dust.

New research shows that unplanted agricultural lands dominate anthropogenic dust sources in California’s Central Valley.

eos.org/articles/fal...

California dust storms are expected to become more common. Some are ‘as big as a city’ The San Joaquin Valley and southeast deserts are hot spots for the extreme weather events.

www.sfchronicle.com/weather/arti...

Fallowed Fields Drive California’s Anthropogenic Dust Crisis In recent years, the growing concern over air quality and the escalating consequences of climate change have intensified scientific investigations into the origins and dynamics of atmospheric dust.

scienmag.com/fallowed-fie...

Based on our recent paper.

Sustainable Groundwater Management Act may worsen dust storms | John Lindt A new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment says the Central Valley accounts for about 77% of total fallowed (unplanted) land in California and is associated with

Media is beginning to pick up our paper and write stories about it. This one focuses on SGMA implications for dust storms in Central Valley.

hanfordsentinel.com/business/agr...

Fallowed agricultural lands dominate anthropogenic dust sources in California - Communications Earth & Environment Fallowed agricultural lands in California’s Central Valley are linked to about 88% of major anthropogenic dust events, with expanding coverage affected by drought, between 2008 and 2022, according to ...

Learn more at doi.org/10.1038/s432...

With the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, that require farmers to get their groudwater use into balance, we expect that more agricultural lands will be fallowed in Central Valley, leading to more dust storms, like the one that happened in Nov 11 last year.

We also showed that the coverage of these fallowed land has been increasing in recent years, as do the associated anthropogenic dust, in part because of recent drought that has become a problem in California.

In the paper, we argued that anthropogenic dusts are prevalent in California Central Valley and that the majority of them are from agricultural lands that are fallowed or abandoned over a period of time.

New publication alert!

Our paper "Fallowed agricultural lands dominate anthropogenic dust sources in California" has just been published with Springer Nature in Communications Earth & Environment.

It was great to have Xue Zheng from #LLNL at #UCMerced and to give a seminar about the recent advances in the #DOE E3SM model.

As the message has been this week, let's focus on the #Science. So, it has been great to see some of the beautiful science being done or being planned here at the #ARM/#ASR PI meeting. Among them, I'm super excited about the #DUSTIEAIM field campaign planned for April 2026 in Phoenix, AZ.

All probationary federal employees at NOAA’s EMC that’s responsible for keeping all US weather model systems running have been fired with 1 hours notice. And that includes me and colleagues. We will not go quietly because we care about the NOAA mission to protect the public.

California Central Valley is sinking at the rate of up to 200 mm/yr primarily because of groundwater loss.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15392...

it's been an amazing week attending the 3rd US-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium organized by @NASEM in Kigali, Rwanda. I have had the opportunity to exchange ideas in areas far different from what I do, and those conversations have been very interesting.

Feel free to suggest who I should follow.

I don't know about you, but I can't in good spirit continue to have my Twitter/X account, and because I still want to continue sharing my science, BlueSky seems to be the next best alternative.

After so much resistance in opening yet another new social media account, I am finally on BlueSky!!!