Author(s)

A.C. Saydam and Incigul Polar

Abstract

The Impact of Saharan Dust on the Occurrence of Algae Blooms Invited contribution AC Saydam ' and Incigul Polar ^Institute of Marine Science (IMS), Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara Turkey Iron coming from desert regions that has photochemically reduced within cloud droplets to the +2 oxidation stage has the capability to induce phytoplankton blooms over the sea surface (Saydam, 1996). This approach has been tested successively both in Mediterranean and the Black Sea, representing the most contrasting water bodies in the world and it has been shown that the intrusion of wet dust deposition over the sea surface resulted with the bloom of phytoplankton and especially Emiliania huxleyi. Following the hypothesis put forward by Saydam (1996), previously published blooms of Emiliania huxleyi and those observed by satellites have been reevaluated both in the NE Atlanti

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