Floating robots reveal just how much airborne dust fertilises the Southern Ocean – a key climate ‘shock absorber’
- Written by: Jakob Weis, Postdoctoral research associate, University of Tasmania
Dust storm blowing off the Australian east coast over the South Pacific.Jeff Schmaltz/NASA GSFC, Author providedThe Southern Ocean, a region critical to Earth’s climate, hosts vast blooms of microscopic ocean plants known as phytoplankton. They form the very basis of the Antarctic food web.
Using a fleet of robotic floats, our study published...