Dust Cloud from the Sahara Desert Moving across the Atlantic Ocean

From the USGS:

You’d often be surprised at how interconnected our global ecosystems can be. Take dust, blowing in the wind. You may have heard that dust from the Sahara can reach the United States. Well, not only can it reach us, that dust might have implications for our coastal waters.

Research led by the University of Georgia, Florida State University, and USGS shows that nutrients like iron found in Saharan dust can, under certain circumstances, lead to rapid growth of bacteria species like Vibrio. Vibrio is the genus that includes Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria behind cholera, so you can see why this is an important research area.

To be clear, we did not look at whether or not there were dangerous levels of pathogenic Vibrios anywhere in our coastal waters. But the discovery that Saharan dust can affect Vibrio population levels in Atlantic Ocean waters does warrant further investigation.

Enjoy the science of environmental health? This and other studies like it can be found in our latest GeoHealth Newsletter! Check it out:http://bit.ly/2ayBYsA

Image shows a dust cloud from the Sahara Desert moving across the Atlantic Ocean. Photo Credit: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Terra satellite. #USGS#Science #SatelliteImagery