NASA satellites have shown with a multi-year study how dust from Africa's Sahara Desert ends up in the South American rain forests. Nutrients in the dust are what make the rain forests flourish. To me this is an incredible example of how the entire earth is connected and how events on one continent affect life on another.
ARTICLE: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nas ... Oyjf4BwZlZ
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygulQJoIe2Y
From Desert to Rain Forest
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Icey
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
Absolutely true. Deserts're an important part of the ecosystem, just as the rain forests are.
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
fascinating stuff,
Mother Earth is sublime.
Mother Earth is sublime.
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
They only covered like six or seven years out of millions.
Remember, the Sahara Desert was at one time a tropical rain forest itself.
What we see as the rain forest today, as shown in the six year video, is amassing sand dust at the rate of 27 million tons per year. It will reach a point where it is just too much dust, and the rain forest will die out, possibly becoming another Desert, and winds will then carry the sand dust from the rain forest to a new rain forest elsewhere.
All they can say for certain is for the past six years, sand dust is carried to the current rain forest.
Remember, the Sahara Desert was at one time a tropical rain forest itself.
What we see as the rain forest today, as shown in the six year video, is amassing sand dust at the rate of 27 million tons per year. It will reach a point where it is just too much dust, and the rain forest will die out, possibly becoming another Desert, and winds will then carry the sand dust from the rain forest to a new rain forest elsewhere.
All they can say for certain is for the past six years, sand dust is carried to the current rain forest.
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Icey
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
The dust's important though Gary, for carrying phosphorous, which's needed for the plants and trees to survive. The dust's absorbed quickly, and probably always has been, so again, it's a case in nature of one thing sustaining another.
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
Yes the phosphorous is an important nutrient. But what percentage of phosphorous is contained in the dust?
The desert is losing like 75 million tons per year, with only about 25 million tons settling down in the rain forest.
Good thing for the rain to keep it washed off the leaves eh!
Will the desert eventually become the next rain forest?
The desert is losing like 75 million tons per year, with only about 25 million tons settling down in the rain forest.
Good thing for the rain to keep it washed off the leaves eh!
Will the desert eventually become the next rain forest?
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Icey
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
Over time, deserts turn back into sedimentary rocks, but they're formed from crushed and powdered rocks anyway, due to droughts - hence the big piles of sand we get.
If you look at the Congo Basin, it's fertile. They get something like 60" of rain a year, but the plants and trees which survive there're able to conserve much of this water, plus the way that nature's made them means that they're able to collect any rainwater in their leaves, which then trickles slowly down and forms into riverlets. During the cool of the mornings, mist rises, forms into clouds and eventually comes down as rain. The canopy catches it and uses it in remarkable ways.
On the edges of most deserts, you find fertile areas. These work in harmony with the hot sandy areas, sustaining all manner of life forms, from lizards and snakes to scorpions and insects which thrive in these dusty places. However, their breeding grounds're often near to sources of water around the peripheral boundaries of their desert habitats. Each works with the other in a perfect balance, but severe climate changes can - and do - alter this from time to time. Most desert areas were once moist, and sustained flora and fauna which died out when severe droughts hit the areas. If our earth's heating up again as some claim, then we're going to see some forested areas turn drier and possibly the same thing'd happen, whereas flooding could eventually turn a dry sandy area into a fertile one - over many, many years.
If you look at the Congo Basin, it's fertile. They get something like 60" of rain a year, but the plants and trees which survive there're able to conserve much of this water, plus the way that nature's made them means that they're able to collect any rainwater in their leaves, which then trickles slowly down and forms into riverlets. During the cool of the mornings, mist rises, forms into clouds and eventually comes down as rain. The canopy catches it and uses it in remarkable ways.
On the edges of most deserts, you find fertile areas. These work in harmony with the hot sandy areas, sustaining all manner of life forms, from lizards and snakes to scorpions and insects which thrive in these dusty places. However, their breeding grounds're often near to sources of water around the peripheral boundaries of their desert habitats. Each works with the other in a perfect balance, but severe climate changes can - and do - alter this from time to time. Most desert areas were once moist, and sustained flora and fauna which died out when severe droughts hit the areas. If our earth's heating up again as some claim, then we're going to see some forested areas turn drier and possibly the same thing'd happen, whereas flooding could eventually turn a dry sandy area into a fertile one - over many, many years.
Last edited by Icey on 25 Mar 2015, 22:05, edited 1 time in total.
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
According to NASA, the earth has been cooling, not warming up. We've crossed they bottom of the cycle between Ice Ages and are headed toward another one now. But it won't happen for thousands of years yet. Hopefully, hi hi...
We've had heavier snowfalls here this year, and broke some cold temperature records the past couple of years.
I think more than the earth heating up or cooling down, the climate is merely shifting, the cold weather starting later than usual, and is still cold when we used to have warm temperatures. Heavy snows in March down here is something new. But so is warmer early winters too. We have not broke any heat records, but the average January temperatures for the last decade is like seven degrees warmer than in recorded history. But by the same token, the average February temperatures for the last decade has been eight degrees colder than in recorded history for our area.
TTUL
Gary
We've had heavier snowfalls here this year, and broke some cold temperature records the past couple of years.
I think more than the earth heating up or cooling down, the climate is merely shifting, the cold weather starting later than usual, and is still cold when we used to have warm temperatures. Heavy snows in March down here is something new. But so is warmer early winters too. We have not broke any heat records, but the average January temperatures for the last decade is like seven degrees warmer than in recorded history. But by the same token, the average February temperatures for the last decade has been eight degrees colder than in recorded history for our area.
TTUL
Gary
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Icey
Re: From Desert to Rain Forest
Hi Gary. Yes, I know what you mean. Some scientists say that we're heating up due to global warming - hence the ice caps melting and so on, and others say that we're cooling again.
Personally, I think that this's always been the case with our planet, whichever comes next, but man isn't helping matters by destroying and polluting the very things we need to survive. It's an interesting but huge subject, which no one can do much about, and what COULD be done, isn't being.
This week, we've had hail and icy rain again, along with night frosts. It's almost April and our heating's still on full blast. There's a definite change going on, and round these parts, it seems to be getting colder, not warmer. : (
Personally, I think that this's always been the case with our planet, whichever comes next, but man isn't helping matters by destroying and polluting the very things we need to survive. It's an interesting but huge subject, which no one can do much about, and what COULD be done, isn't being.
This week, we've had hail and icy rain again, along with night frosts. It's almost April and our heating's still on full blast. There's a definite change going on, and round these parts, it seems to be getting colder, not warmer. : (