The desert is regarded as a geographical area with poor fertility, having very little or almost no vegetation. All that this region possesses is sand covering more than 20% of the Earth’s surface.
However, in a recent study, scientists at the University of California stated that desert dust may be a crucial factor in nourishing life that comes from many other places, particularly from the ocean floor.
The vast Sahara Desert (Photo: Getty).
Specifically, windblown desert dust rises into the atmosphere and travels far from the deserts. At this point, the iron content within the sand is converted into a form that the biosphere below can easily access.
In other words, desert dust is being transformed by the Earth’s atmosphere into minerals, which in turn nourish life.
“Iron transportation seems to stimulate biological processes that have influenced life in the oceans and on land,” shared Timothy Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California (USA).
It is known that iron plays a significant role in biochemical pathways, helping to protect carbon in the atmosphere and convert organic molecules.
Although iron is vital for life, its supply is quite limited. Additionally, not all forms of iron can be absorbed by living organisms.
For this reason, the dispersion of desert dust particles can largely determine where life can be found on Earth.
The researchers discovered this by analyzing core samples from the ocean floor. They found a large quantity of biologically active iron, meaning that it can dissolve and nourish phytoplankton across the oceans.
These phytoplankton then become a rich food source for marine animals and also produce a significant amount of the oxygen that we all breathe.
Moreover, they are also related to bacterial activities on the surfaces of some major coral reefs and the pollination of seaweed.
This new finding reveals an incredible connection between geographical components and life on our planet.
