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

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