Editorial preface to special issue: Cenozoic climatic and environmental changes in Central Asia

In order to improve the understanding of climate and environmental changes in Central Asia during the Cenozoic era and their forcing mechanisms, we present this new Special Issue. It comprises thirty-three publications that can be broadly categorized into six themes from present to past: (1) Dust sources, distributions, and geochronology of aeolian sediments in core area of Central Asia; (2) Holocene millennium to centennial timescale climate changes; (3) Palaeoenvironmental changes during the last glacial period and its possible forcing factors; (4) Pleistocene orbital-timescale climate change in Central Asia and the East Asian monsoonal area; (5) Cenozoic tectonic and palaeoenvironmental evolutions in the Qaidam Basin and its adjacent area; and (6) Numerical simulations on the effects of different external forcing on Asian arid climate and dust cycle. These contributions provide a useful glimpse into Cenozoic tectonic and climate changes in the Asian interior and improve understanding of potential forcing mechanisms. The articles will be of interests to colleagues across many sub-disciplines in the geosciences.