2 ms·
It's a one of the biggest sources of trace micronutrients in the world. The 800 million metric tons of mineral dust a year that it produces feeds a ton of ecosy
by civilitty 3y ago
It's a one of the biggest sources of trace micronutrients in the world. The 800 million metric tons of mineral dust a year that it produces feeds a ton of ecosystems:
Amazon rainforest: phosphorus feeds plants
Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico: iron feeds plankton
Atlantic ocean: iron feeds plankton
Southern Europe: phosphorus feeds plants
Mediterranean: iron feeds plankton
Sahel: phosphorus and iron feed plants
Florida everglades: phosphorus feeds plants
Andean cloud forest: phosphorus feeds plants
- culi 3y agoWorth noting also that roughly half of oxygen in the atmosphere comes from the ocean, the large majority of which comes from plankton. The same type of plankton that bloom from iron. Scientists have been investigating whether manually spreading iron dust over the ocean can be an effective way to undo the damage that our rapidly rising ocean acidity is doing to our oxygen supply