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An exceptional phytoplankton bloom in the southeast Madagascar Sea driven by African dust deposition.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Gittings, JA; Dall'Olmo, G; Tang, W; Llort, J; Jebri, F; Livanou, E; Nencioli, F; Darmaraki, S; Theodorou, I; Brewin, RJW; Srokosz, M ...
Published in: PNAS nexus
October 2024

Rising surface temperatures are projected to cause more frequent and intense droughts in the world's drylands. This can lead to land degradation, mobilization of soil particles, and an increase in dust aerosol emissions from arid and semi-arid regions. Dust aerosols are a key source of bio-essential nutrients, can be transported in the atmosphere over large distances, and ultimately deposited onto the ocean's surface, alleviating nutrient limitation and increasing oceanic primary productivity. Currently, the linkages between desertification, dust emissions and ocean fertilization remain poorly understood. Here, we show 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. The conditions required for triggering blooms of this magnitude are anomalous, but current trends in air temperatures, aridity, and dust emissions in Southern Africa suggest that such events could become more probable in the future. Together with the recent findings on ocean fertilization by drought-induced megafires in Australia, our results point toward a potential link between global warming, drought, aerosol emissions, and ocean blooms.

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Published In

PNAS nexus

DOI

EISSN

2752-6542

ISSN

2752-6542

Publication Date

October 2024

Volume

3

Issue

10

Start / End Page

pgae386
 

Citation

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Chicago
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Gittings, J. A., Dall’Olmo, G., Tang, W., Llort, J., Jebri, F., Livanou, E., … Raitsos, D. E. (2024). An exceptional phytoplankton bloom in the southeast Madagascar Sea driven by African dust deposition. PNAS Nexus, 3(10), pgae386. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae386
Gittings, John A., Giorgio Dall’Olmo, Weiyi Tang, Joan Llort, Fatma Jebri, Eleni Livanou, Francesco Nencioli, et al. “An exceptional phytoplankton bloom in the southeast Madagascar Sea driven by African dust deposition.PNAS Nexus 3, no. 10 (October 2024): pgae386. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae386.
Gittings JA, Dall’Olmo G, Tang W, Llort J, Jebri F, Livanou E, et al. An exceptional phytoplankton bloom in the southeast Madagascar Sea driven by African dust deposition. PNAS nexus. 2024 Oct;3(10):pgae386.
Gittings, John A., et al. “An exceptional phytoplankton bloom in the southeast Madagascar Sea driven by African dust deposition.PNAS Nexus, vol. 3, no. 10, Oct. 2024, p. pgae386. Epmc, doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae386.
Gittings JA, Dall’Olmo G, Tang W, Llort J, Jebri F, Livanou E, Nencioli F, Darmaraki S, Theodorou I, Brewin RJW, Srokosz M, Cassar N, Raitsos DE. An exceptional phytoplankton bloom in the southeast Madagascar Sea driven by African dust deposition. PNAS nexus. 2024 Oct;3(10):pgae386.

Published In

PNAS nexus

DOI

EISSN

2752-6542

ISSN

2752-6542

Publication Date

October 2024

Volume

3

Issue

10

Start / End Page

pgae386