In this video, I go over the ways in which the largest hot desert in the world, the Sahara, feeds plant and animal life in the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon! Saharan dust effects the Amazon rainforest by providing nutrients, fertilizing the low-nutrient Amazon soils, promoting cloud formation which promotes rain, and promoting biodiversity. I talk about each of these in detail in this video, and then at the end I discuss other effects of Sahara dust on other places and environments. I hope you enjoy! :D

0:00 Sahara Dust Transport
1:24 Nutrient Input from Sahara Dust
3:05 Fertilization Effect of Sahara Dust
3:58 Where Sahara Dust Gets its Nutrients
5:56 Low Nutrients in Amazon Soils
7:59 Cloud Formation by Sahara Dust
8:23 Biodiversity Fueled by Dust & Other Factors
10:24 Amazon Rainforest Without Sahara Dust?
12:06 Should we Replicate the Dust’s Effects?
14:09 Other Effects of Sahara Dust

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References:
Prospero et al., 2020: Characterizing and Quantifying African Dust Transport and Deposition to South America: Implications for the Phosphorus Budget in the Amazon Basin- https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GB006536
Moran-Zuloaga et al., 2018: Long-term study on coarse mode aerosols in the Amazon rain forest with the frequent intrusion of Saharan dust plumes- https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-10055-...
Rizzolo et al., 2017: Soluble iron nutrients in Saharan dust over the central Amazon rainforest- https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2673-2017
Yu et al., 2015: The fertilizing role of African dust in the Amazon rainforest: A first multiyear assessment based on data from Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations- https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063040
Prenni et al., 2009: Relative roles of biogenic emissions and Saharan dust as ice nuclei in the Amazon basin- https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo517
Reichholf, 2008: Is Saharan Dust a Major Source of Nutrients for the Amazonian Rain Forest?- https://doi.org/10.1080/0165052860936...
Swap et al., 1992: Saharan dust in the Amazon Basin- https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0889.1...

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