Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. The Sahara Desert is a long
Speaker 1: way from the Caribbean, but that doesn't matter. What happens
Speaker 1: in Africa doesn't necessarily stay in Africa. Take dust, for instance.
Speaker 1: The dirt on the ground in North Africa is dry
Speaker 1: and the desert is windy. Every summer, dust from the
Speaker 1: dunes of the world's largest desert pours into the atmosphere
Speaker 1: over the North Atlantic to see the world's oceans with
Speaker 1: nutrients that are sorely limited in many marine ecosystems, most
Speaker 1: notably iron, which is essential to the growth of plants.
Speaker 1: What happens to that dust after it leaves home can
Speaker 1: be very good or very bad. It's sort of a
Speaker 1: crap shoot. Nothing is stationary or permanent or simple on
Speaker 1: this wild planet of oars. The major dust related pro
Speaker 1: the iron that gives Saharan dust its rich red color,
Speaker 1: feeds the phytoplankton in the Caribbean and along the coast
Speaker 1: of the southeastern United States, which is important because you
Speaker 1: want to know a big reason why you're breathing air
Speaker 1: right now phytoplankton. We spoke with Jason west Rich, a
Speaker 1: postdoctoral research scientist in the University of George's Department of Microbiology.
Speaker 1: He said, for a long time it's been assumed the
Speaker 1: tropical forests of the world or the primary source of
Speaker 1: oxygen in the atmosphere, but now it's more appreciated that
Speaker 1: the production in the ocean acts as a second lung
Speaker 1: for the planet. Phytoplankton photosynthesis is responsible for half of
Speaker 1: the oxygen and also a substantial uptake of carbon dioxide
Speaker 1: on this planet. Now for the dust related khan In
Speaker 1: a ten study, a research team led by Westritch found
Speaker 1: that phytoplankton isn't the only organism in the Caribbean using
Speaker 1: the magic desert dust bacteria. Notably, twelve different species of
Speaker 1: pathogenic bacteria from the genus Fibrio use these nutrient infusions
Speaker 1: to create blooms of their own. Vibrio bacteria are pretty
Speaker 1: ubiquitous in the world's oceans, but there are freshwater species too.
Speaker 1: You've probably of cholera, the disease brought to you by
Speaker 1: the freshwater Vibrio colare, which infects millions of people worldwide
Speaker 1: each year, especially in developing countries. A color outbreak after
Speaker 1: the earthquake in Haiti killed an estimated ten thousand people,
Speaker 1: and in Yemen, an ongoing cholera epidemic has infected over
Speaker 1: a million people and killed two thousand and counting. Another fibrio,
Speaker 1: the flesh eating marine Vibrio vulnificus, is also deadly to humans.
Speaker 1: It can gain entry through an abrasion or puncture wound,
Speaker 1: such as a fish hook, leading to severe infection, especially
Speaker 1: for immunocompromised individuals. Marine Fibrio species also play a role
Speaker 1: in many diseases of ocean organisms. You know how you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to eat shellfish from some places during the summer.
Speaker 1: That's because there are more Vibrio in the water when
Speaker 1: it's warmer, and filter feeding shellfish accumulate two species of
Speaker 1: Vibrio in their meat, which caused the majority of seafood
Speaker 1: related sickness and death in the United States. Other Vibrio
Speaker 1: species are known to be associated with diseased coral that
Speaker 1: are already facing so many environmental stressors. Vibrio disease and
Speaker 1: mortality has even placed economic strain on the fishing and
Speaker 1: shrimp farming industries. West Ritch said, Understanding what drives fluctuation
Speaker 1: of Vibrio in the environment can help to inform our
Speaker 1: predictive potential of when to expect increased disease risk in
Speaker 1: humans and other marine organisms. For example, we can track
Speaker 1: sahir and dust by satellite over the typical five day
Speaker 1: transit across the Atlantic before it arrives in US coastal waters,
Speaker 1: allowing us to warn a swimmer, scuba diver, or fisherman
Speaker 1: that there might be a peak and potentially harmful Vibrio
Speaker 1: in surface water in the Keys. Because Vibrio are one
Speaker 1: of the most researched marine bacterial genuses, researchers already know
Speaker 1: a lot about their biology, ecology, physiology, and genetics. And
Speaker 1: because they can reproduce so quickly under the right nutrient conditions,
Speaker 1: one of its species has a population doubling time of
Speaker 1: just ten minutes. Vibrio make a great adele to probe
Speaker 1: the lifestyle strategy of an organism capable of quickly blooming
Speaker 1: when the nutrient circumstances are right. Next Westritch and his
Speaker 1: colleagues will be working to better understand the role of
Speaker 1: Vibrio blooms on marine iron availability to see if they're
Speaker 1: competing with phytoplankton for that sweet, sweet iron dust. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang.
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