Taxonomy term

Dust from the Sahara Desert is a major supplier of iron to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre — the huge circular ocean current stretching between North America and the west coasts of Africa and Europe — where cyanobacteria use the scarce nutrient to fuel nitrogen fixation, which then fertilizes other organisms at the base of the marine food chain. Now, researchers have discovered that eddies spinning off the Gulf Stream also transport iron to the northwestern edge of the gyre.

Scientists have suspected that ancient animals migrated in response to changing global temperatures, but until now, there was no documentation of this across extensive time periods. In a new study, researchers found that, for millions of years, marine organisms like corals, sponges and snails, have shifted their ranges in response to climate change.

People have inhabited Jerash, Jordan, since the Neolithic. But much of its history has been buried by subsequent occupation, including over the last two centuries. Archaeologists have excavated Jerash with trowels and screens to uncover its long history, but now, with the help of lidar and old photographs, a team of researchers is discovering more about Jerash’s past by gazing down on the city from the sky.

Each year between 900 million and 4 billion metric tons of dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa is swept into the atmosphere and blown around the world. In places like Texas, the dust often leads to poor air quality. A new study suggests that desert dust may also suppress the formation of severe storms and hurricanes in the southern United States.