Title
Dust arriving in the Amazon basin over the past 7,500 years came from diverse sources
Date Issued
01 December 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Nogueira J.
Evangelista H.
Valeriano C.d.M.
Neto C.
Vaz G.
Moreira L.S.
Cordeiro R.C.
Aniceto K.C.
Neto A.B.
Martins G.
Barbosa C.G.G.
Godoi R.H.M.
Shimizu M.H.
Research Institute Development
Research Institute Development
Publisher(s)
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
A large amount of dust from the Sahara reaches the Amazon Basin, as observed with satellite imagery. This dust is thought to carry micronutrients that could help fertilize the rainforest. However, considering different atmospheric transport conditions, different aridity levels in South America and Africa and active volcanism, it is not clear if the same pathways for dust have occurred throughout the Holocene. Here we present analyses of Sr-Nd isotopic ratios of a lacustrine sediment core from remote Lake Pata in the Amazon region that encompasses the past 7,500 years before present, and compare these ratios to dust signatures from a variety of sources. We find that dust reaching the western Amazon region during the study period had diverse origins, including the Andean region and northern and southern Africa. We suggest that the Sahara Desert was not the dominant source of dust throughout the vast Amazon basin over the past 7,500 years.
Volume
2
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geociencias, Multidisciplinar
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85125110681
Source
Communications Earth and Environment
ISSN of the container
26624435
Sponsor(s)
This study was financed in part by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil—for the field excursion and analysis—and by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior (CAPES), Brazil—who provided the main author with a master’s scholarship during the development of this work. Thanks are also due to Dr. Nivaldo Ferreira (Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense – UENF) for his valuable advice on the OLR data analysis and to Dr. Mark Bush for his support on the field mission. We acknowledge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and READY website (http://www.ready.noaa.gov). We also thank Victoria Barros and Leonardo Monteiro for their support. C. Valeriano acknowledges the CNPq and FAPERJ Brazilian funding agencies for scholarship and research grants.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción CientÃfica
Scopus