Why the Amazon Rainforest depends on the Sahara Desert For Survival

The Earth is a large, complex planet made up of many different systems that interact in countless ways, sometimes deep and often surprising ways. Take the Amazon tropical rainforest for example. There is no place on earth quite like it, it is one of the greatest natural habitats on the planet, it covers 40% of the South American continent, contains nearly 400 billion individual trees within the forest, and creates one-fifth of our planet’s oxygen.

As big and mighty as it is, the Amazon is sustained by the Sahara desert. It is nothing short of extraordinary. On one side of the Atlantic ocean is one of the most inhospitable and driest wilderness on Earth with searing temperatures and little to zero rainfall. On the other side is one of the wettest and most fertile locations on earth. Despite over 10,000 km of open ocean separating the world’s largest rainforest and the world’s largest hot desert, the two regions are intimately connected and do share a vital commonality, nutrient-rich dust