SAN ANTONIO – We see dust plumes make it to South Texas every summer and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who enjoys it. It does make sunsets more vibrant, but the side effects of those with dust allergies seem to outweigh any positive. That’s the case here in our part of the world, but travel to the Amazon rainforest and it’s a completely different story.
It has to do with phosphorus, a remnant in the sand from when parts of the Sahara desert were lake beds. The phosphorous essentially acts as a fertilizer, traveling from one of the most desolate parts of the world to one of the most fertile, according to NASA.
A research paper written in 2015, published in the Geophysical Research Letters, details how satellites are used to estimate how much phosphorus is transported over multiple years. According to the lead author of the study, Hongbin Yu, the phosphorus is a key ingredient for plant proteins and growth. The Amazon depends on this phosphorus to flourish since it loses much of it through runoff after rainfall. In fact, the study shows that 90% of Amazon soils are phosphorus-deficient. The dust can help to make up that deficit.
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According to the research, 22,000 tons of dust arrive at the Amazon each year from the Sahara. That’s a lot of dust!
Scientists continue to study the connection between the two very different ecosystems and it should be noted that the amount of dust deposited changes year to year. This year, however, should be a good year for the Amazon.
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What you need to know about Saharan dust in Texas
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