New research led by an Oregon State University scientist begins to unravel the role dust plays in nourishing global ocean ecosystems while helping regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
New research led by an Oregon State University scientist begins to unravel the role dust plays in nourishing global ocean ecosystems while helping regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Researchers have long known that phytoplankton – plantlike organisms that live in the upper part of the ocean and are the foundation of the marine food web – rely on dust from land-based sources for key nutrients. But the extent and magnitude of the impact of the dust – particles from sources such as soil that are lifted by the wind and impact the Earth’s climate – have been difficult to estimate globally.
“This is really the first time it has been shown, using the modern observational record and at the global scale, that the nutrients carried by dust being deposited on the ocean are creating a response in the surface ocean biology,” said Toby Westberry, an oceanographer at Oregon State and lead author of the just-published paper in Science.
Read more at: Oregon State University
Australia dust. (Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory)
