在4月30日出版的英国《自然》(Nature)杂志，刊登了题为“追求卓越的百年中国高校”(A CENTURY-OLD CHINESE UNIVERSITY ASPIRING FOR EXCELLENCE)的bwin介绍，其中的科研亮点选择了公司在物理、化学、地球科学及信息科学四大领域的代表性成果。由公司师生为主体完成的“末次盛冰期和全新世适宜期中国沙漠沙地面积重建”的成果，被作为地球科学的亮点之一介绍。文章写到，他们的研究发现，中国北方沙地在全新世适宜期全部被植被覆盖，同时，西北地区沙漠的面积减少了5-20%。这表明，亚洲粉尘的源区在过去冰期-间冰期气候背景下，发生了很大的变化，这些变化会影响区域粉尘排放量和气候反馈。因此，为了更好地认识过去气候变化的机制，粉尘的影响应该加入到古气候模型中. (原文为: They found that all the sand fields in northern China, an important dust source today, were nearly completely covered by vegetation during the Holocene Optimum, whereas the deserts in northwestern and central northern China were about 5-20 percent smaller in area at this time. This suggests that the surface conditions of Asian dust source regions changed dramatically during the glacial and interglacial climate variations, and such changes affected regional dust emissions and subsequent feedback to the climate change. Thus, the dust impact should be coupled with the climate system in palaeoclimatic modelling in order to fully understand the forcing mechanism of the past climate changes.)
这也是陈骏院士为首席科学家的国家自然科学基金委员会创新群体的成果之一。