Dust deposition may be slowing climate change: USQ lecturer

New research led by USQ Maths and Computing lecturer, Dr Harry Butler is exploring how dry conditions caused by the drought may be helping slow climate change.

Dr Butler, who is also a researcher with the Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments (ACSC), is looking into dust deposition, where iron-rich dust from dust storms travels via the East Australian dust pathway into the Southern Ocean.

This in turn helps microscopic marine plants grow, thus absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, which is believed to be helping slow climate change.

'Due to the drought there is an increase in dust storms, which are carrying dust into the Southern Ocean, this then promotes the growth of plankton, which absorbs carbon dioxide,' Dr Butler said.

'What I have been doing is modelling dust deposition rates across Australia and the Southern Ocean and measuring the amount of dust that is going into the Southern Ocean, from which we can predict how much dust is deposited into the ocean on an annual basis.'

Although the dust storms may slow climate change, Dr Butler said that the sediment was also creating problems.

'A lot of the dust that is carried into the ocean is from farms and thus is nutrient rich,' he said.

'This means that these nutrients are carried into the Southern Ocean and may for example have a negative effect on coral in the Great Barrier Reef.'

The dust storms are also causing havoc for farmers.

'They lead to problems with erosion and many farmers lose nutrient rich topsoil because of the dust storms.'

By modelling dust activity on a yearly basis, Dr Butler hopes that it will produce some significant results as to the role of dust in the climate change debate.

'The outcome will really look at what effect the dust is having on the environment.

'There are positives, like the effect that it is having on greenhouse gases but there are negatives like the effect that it is having on sustainable agriculture.

'What we really want to distinguish is how much of the dust is the result of human impact on the environment.'

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628