Recent studies have emphasized the role of dust emissions from the southern South American deserts (and in particular the Patagonia desert) in past and present climate as well as the possible links to marine biology in the South Atlantic Ocean.

However, there is a notorious lack of observational data of dust activity, compositional features and long range transport. As a result, much of modeling efforts of aerosol transport and ocean biogeochemistry in the Southern Ocean have to rely on parameterizations and studies based on measurements on northern hemisphere environments. In addition, ice-core studies in Antarctica have trouble in justifying the presence of dust in their records because the lack of data from southern hemisphere deserts to compare with.

In summary, there are number of essential questions regarding dust emitted from southern South America:

Is the Patagonia desert the only major source of dust in southern South American? What is the contribution of the Pampean loess formation; the Central-West Argentina and the Puna-Altiplano deserts?
Dust emission patterns: What are the conditions that trigger dust events? What are the controls of glacial-interglacial changes in dust supply and transport from Patagonia?
Is there a compositional signature of southern South American dust? What is the isotopic signature of SSA dust compared with ocean sediment cores or dust from ice-cores?
What is the total and soluble iron content in southern South American dust? Is there a fertilization effect downwind of Patagonia?

The objective of this meeting is to share information and promote collaborations among groups from different disciplines in order to improve our understanding of southern South America (notably Patagonia) and its role in influencing the climate and marine biogeochemistry in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.