Dust storms represent a major environmental challenge in northern China, adversely affecting air quality, agricultural productivity, and energy supply. However, the drivers behind recent changes in dust storm activity remain poorly understood. By analyzing 39 years of dust storm observations (957 stations), remote sensing, and reanalysis data (1982–2020), we document a significant decline in annual dust storm frequency (−0.490 days·decade⁻¹; p < 0.05), most pronounced in northwestern China. Concurrently, vegetation cover expanded (annual NDVI increase: 0.100 decade⁻¹), exhibiting a strong negative correlation with dust activity (r = −0.616; p < 0.01). Sensitivity experiments conducted with the physically-based Dust Emission Model (DuEMv1) further indicate that enhanced vegetation cover weakens dust activity, suggesting that vegetation greening plays a key role in suppressing dust storms. This also suggests that vegetation greening has the potential to mitigate dust storms in dryland regions, with implications for ecosystem restoration under a warming climate.
Wang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.