Does this mean we need to start worrying about Peak Dust?

Two amazing facts:

1. The vast amount of mineral nutrients required to sustain the Amazon rainforest come from dust storms in the African Sahara, and
2. We’ve known about this for six years (for some small values of we).

And I really dig the estimate of the amount of dust that makes it across the Atlantic to the Amazon: 50 ± 15 Teragrams.  Not only is that a lot of dust, that’s one hell of a margin of error!

Tip from BoingBoing.

P.S. to my students:  Look over the referenced paper; it’s a great example of science writing.

Update (13 August).  We get our fair share of that Sahara dust here in Texas, too.  I wonder how much…