Good dusty-news!
We are pleased to announce that Laura Korte’s most recent paper is finally out, fresh from the press! In this study published in Limnology and Oceanography, Korte and co-authors illustrate the important role of the Amazon River plume and of Saharan dust in promoting the biological carbon pump in the Western Tropical North Atlantic.
How does this work?
Well, both the Amazon plume (seasonally flowing from west) and Saharan dust (seasonally transported by the wind from east) act as a source of nutrients that fuel the productivity of marine phytoplankton in the open tropical North Atlantic. The carbon-rich material that is produced following such fertilization events is further exported from the surface of ocean and subsequently sequestrated, with little degradation, in the deep ocean. In others words, evidences shown in this study strongly suggest that oligotrophic conditions typical of tropical oceans can act as important sinks for atmospheric CO2 whenever its surface waters are fertilised by dust originated from Africa!
For more details about this study, click here!