We tend to imagine deserts as empty and rainforests as full. But the living world rarely respects the tidy categories we draw around it.
That's the kind of connection the environmental humanities exist to notice 🌱
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The Amazon sits on surprisingly poor soil. Its heavy rains constantly wash nutrients away — so all that lush green is growing on ground that's actually quite starved.
So what keeps it going?
April 29, 2015: The Sahara Desert is one of the least hospitable climates on Earth. Its barren plateaus, rocky peaks, and shifting sands envelop the northern
science.nasa.gov
The answer blows in from thousands of kilometres away.
Every year, Saharan winds lift huge clouds of dust and carry them across the Atlantic. That dust is rich in phosphorus — the very nutrient the rainforest keeps losing.
The desert, in effect, fertilises the jungle 🏜️🌳