African Dust Winds Bring 56% of Brazil Amazon Jungle’s Minerals

A single spot in the Sahara desert is responsible for over half the Amazon basin's annual supply of minerals, researchers say.

In a study published in Environmental Research Letters, scientists show that dust winds arising from the Bodélé depression – northeast of Lake Chad – are the main mineral source fertilizing the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Latin America.

Using recent advances in satellite instrumentation, researchers produced the first quantitative estimate of the dust emission: 56% of the Amazon's total annual mineral supply.

It was known that West African dust winds played an essential role in the Amazon mineral supply. But the rate of emission from the Bodélé depression has not been measured until now.

According to the study, the soil of the Amazon rainforest is shallow, poor in nutrients and almost without soluble minerals. The health and productivity of the Amazon basin depends on nearly 50 million tons of mineral-containing dust transported annually across the Atlantic ocean from the Sahara.

The Bodélé is known to be the biggest source of dust in the world. This has been attributed to its shape and geography. Wedged in a narrow path between two mountain chains, the depression directs and accelerates surface winds.

Lead researcher Dr. Ilan Koren, of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, said that the research posed more questions than it answered. Key questions remain, such as for how long the area has emitted such a huge amount of dust, and how long it will continue.

"We are now studying how long the Bodélé – and all Sahara regions – have contributed to the Amazon, and what the forest was like before," he said.

SciDev.Net

Tags:

You May Also Like

At This Pace, Brazil Will Still Have 2.7 Million Children Working in 2015

A study entitled "Brazil Without Child Labor, When?" shows that if the country does ...

LETTERS

The debate over affirmative action is encouraging. If nothing else, it forces people in ...

Brazil Develops New Sugar Whitening Process to Replace Cancer-Causing Sulfur

A new technology to substitute sulfur in the granulated sugar clarifying process is currently ...

A Sampling of Brazil

The second decade of the 20th Century is represented by the Picasso-influenced modern wave ...

Brazil Building Lab For Testing Cigarettes Ingredients

Brazil will have a research lab for monitoring activities related to tobacco consumption. The ...

For a Week Curitiba Becomes Capital of Brazilian Fashion

For five days, from July 28 to August 1st, the city of Curitiba, the ...

The Impossible Dream

Fifty years ago the culprit would have been the Jews. In the case of ...

Stevie Wonder, Brazilian President Lula and Minister Gilberto Gil in Salvador, Bahia

The African Intelligentsia Makes Bahia, Brazil, Its Headquarters

The Second Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora (CIAD II) was opened ...

Brazil Gets Its First Hydrogen Fuel Bus

Brazil will get tomorrow, November 14, its first hydrogen cell powered bus. The vehicle ...

Lula Urges Brazilian Mayors to Do Much More

Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said today that, prior to his Administration, ...