It’s long been known that nutrient-rich dust from Africa floats across the Atlantic to the Amazon. And it’s assumed that the dust fertilizes the rainforest. Oliver Chadwick from the University of California, Santa Barbara, says that Hawaii can also thank immigrant dust for its lush forests:
“Hawaii is one of the least dusty places in the world. It’s one of the most remote archipelagos in the world and receives very little dust. And yet, we’ve been able to demonstrate that the phosphorus that’s carried by the dust and deposited on the old landscapes in Kauai actually fertilizes the forest.”
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