Noticias:
The trade wind rids us again of a "super calima".
The impressive sandstorm, which will cross the Atlantic about 800 kilometers south of the archipelago, will once again fertilize the Amazon.
A terrible sandstorm was unleashed in recent days over Chad, Mauritania and Senegal producing a terrible Calima that affected these three Central African countries. At the moment the satellites already draw the route over the Atlantic that will reach nearby areas of the Caribbean and that will surely return to fertilize with nutrients to the entire Amazon.
This time the trade winds and the strength of the "rotor" of the Azores anticyclone help not to suffer this mega sandstorm in the archipelago. The northeast winds so characteristic of the Canarian summer will save us from the calm and high temperatures.
The Life Cycle
Every year about 182 million tons of dust from the Sahara are displaced by the wind towards the Atlantic. Of this total, about 27.7 million tons of dust are precipitated over the Amazon basin, according to data from the period 2007-2011 analyzed in a NASA study published in 2015 in an article in the journal Geophysical Research Letters of the American Geophysical Union.
Those responsible for the work emphasize that the amount of dust that is recorded in this phenomenon is very variable from one year to the next and that new studies are necessary to determine if there are long-term patterns or trends related to processes such as climate change.
The Amazon depends on the Sahara to stay fertile
Of particular interest in this study is the importance of the suspended dust that arrives from the Sahara to different parts of the world, and especially the dust collected from the Bodélé depression in Chad. This ancient lake bed contains huge deposits of dead microorganisms that are loaded with phosphorus. Amazonian soils are scarce in phosphorus and other essential nutrients that are washed away by frequent rains. Therefore, the entire Amazon ecosystem depends on dust from the Sahara to replenish these losses.
Importance of Phosphorus
The study calculated a few years ago that the Amazon loses about 22,000 tons per year of phosphorus due to rain and floods, and it is this element, together with nitrogen or iron that are fundamental nutrients in the growth of plants and in the richness of a fertile soil. All these nutrients are provided in the suspended dust that leaves Africa and travels almost 10,000 kilometers to the South American coast. That transoceanic journey from Africa to America, it has now been discovered, is fundamental to the jungle.
The Atlantic Food Chain
On the other hand, the phosphorus nutrients essential for the life of one of the most important organisms in the evolution of the planet, the Phytoplankton, are also contributed by the calima in the Atlantic Ocean.
Phytoplankton, in addition to being responsible for the existence of oxygen on Earth (and therefore we owe it life), is also the base of the food chain in the seas and oceans. Without their existence, the rest of the animals could not be fed.
Climatologists and marine biologists studied, on the other hand, for more than ten years the journey of the particles of the Sahara in a westerly direction over the Atlantic Ocean, and in the course of these studies, it turned out, that the suspended dust that remained in the ocean from Africa, was also rich in nitrogen, iron and as we have seen, phosphorus. All these components of The Calima "fertilize" the Atlantic Ocean, and the growth of phytoplankton is promoted.
Added benefit
On the other hand, meteorologists know that these microorganisms are a fundamental part in the fight against the greenhouse effect, since phytoplankton absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That way the greenhouse effect is reduced to a minimum.
Possible prejudices
But all this can have a perverse effect, or at least annoying, as is the proliferation of what in the Canary Islands has been called microalgae, which are nothing more than these organisms that have been producing oxygen on the planet for millions of years. An excess of calimas, high temperatures at sea, and calm times make phytoplankton approach the islands with the consequent discomfort it causes to bathers and the general public.
link to original article for map pic
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