Dust sparked biggest phytoplankton bloom in decades

A new paper has been recently published on PNAS Nexus as a result of the work of two Living Planet Fellows, John Gittings with his POSEIDON project and Joan Llort with the PYROPLANKTON activity.

The research explores the linkages between global warming, desertification, dust emissions and ocean fertilisation.

In particular, the study shows that dust emitted from Southern Africa was transported and deposited into the nutrient-limited surface waters southeast of Madagascar, which stimulated the strongest phytoplankton bloom of the last two decades during a period of the year when blooms are not expected.

Read the full story on ESA EO pages.

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