Massive, migrating dust clouds originating in the Sahara Desert are crucial to fostering life in the Atlantic Ocean as far away as the Amazonian basin, according to new evidence from an international team of researchers. This source of biodiversity, however, becomes particularly useful after traveling thousands of miles in the atmosphere.

Iron carried in clouds of Saharan dust blown across the Atlantic Ocean is increasingly available to tiny life forms the further it travels.

Iron is a micronutrient indispensable for life, enabling processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, and DNA synthesis. Iron availability is often a limiting resource in today's oceans, which means that increasing the flow of iron into them can increase the amount of carbon fixed by phytoplankton,

Iron bound to dust from the Sahara blown westward over the Atlantic has properties that change with the distance traveled.