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Sahara dust circulates across planet Earth and brings nutrients to the rainforest

Image: Karim Elmalhy in Unsplash

The Sahara Desert is the largest source of global soil dust and plays a key role in balancing the nutrients that circulate on our planet. Similar to what happens with organisms, the Earth itself has its homeostasis mechanisms, which guarantee the correct functioning of all environments. Just as the rains in the Amazon help to irrigate regions in the south and southeast of Brazil, a phenomenon called flying rivers, the region also receives help from the dust from the Sahara, which brings nutrients such as phosphorus.

One study found that the presence of Sahara dust in the Amazon rainforest is particularly high in the rainy season between January and May, being mostly composed of coarse particulate matter from North Africa, both the Sahara and the Sahel (region of border between desert and savannah).

The displacement of dust from the Sahara was recorded on video by NASA. The images show that, despite being more than 2,500 kilometers away, the Sahara desert and the Amazon rainforest are more connected than it seems. The US space agency collected data between 2007 and 2013 that show the relationship between the desert, which occupies a third of Africa's territory, and the largest rainforest in the world.

NASA's analysis shows that about 182 million tons of dust cross the Atlantic Ocean every year, leaving the Sahara and heading to the American continent. It's the first time NASA has managed to quantify how much dust makes this trip.

The Amazon region receives an average of 22,000 tons of phosphorus, which works as a fertilizer and is essential for plant growth, offsetting the loss of this nutrient during rains and floods. Of the total, 27.7 million tons fall into the forest, bringing various nutrients, such as the aforementioned phosphorus.

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The study also shows that the amount of dust transported depends on the rainfall that occurs in the Sahel, a region south of the Sahara. When the rains increase, the amount of dust transported to the forest in the following year is smaller.

The discovery is part of a research aimed at understanding the role of dust and other agents in the environment and in the local and global climate.

See the trip that the dust of the Sahara makes towards the American continent: