California Study Links Fallow Farmland with Dust Problem

Researchers at the University of California Merced published a study that links fallow farmland in California’s Central Valley with human-caused dust events produced by wind erosion. These dust events can have a range of negative impacts, including respiratory and other health problems for people, loss of agricultural fertility, reductions in visibility that cause traffic accidents, and snowpack darkening that leads to earlier snowmelt. The amount of unplanted land in the region has increased recently as a function of water scarcity. Scientists point to the importance of cover crops or ground cover in reducing potential for wind erosion.