Windswept desert dust helps oceanic plants

LIVERPOOL, England, July 18 (UPI) -- Sandstorms in the Sahara Desert can help sustain life in the Atlantic Ocean, a University of Liverpool study indicates.

Scientists mapped the distribution of nutrients, investigating how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in ocean areas with low nutrient levels, the university said Friday in a news release.

Plants survived in low-nutrient regions because they are took advantage of iron minerals from Saharan dust storms, findings show. The dust storm-borne materials allows the phytoplankton to use organic material from decaying and dying plant when nutrients in the ocean are low.

"Our findings suggest that Saharan dust storms are largely responsible for the significant difference between the numbers of cyanobacteria (a type phytoplankton) in the North and South Atlantic," said George Wolff of the university's Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

While dust fertilized the North Atlantic, "it doesn't reach the southern regions and so without enough iron, phytoplankton are unable to use the organic material and don't grow as successfully," Wolff said.