Characterization of dust samples from Mauritania and Namibia

Dust samples were collected in the form of silt crusts from an ephemeral river in Namibia and from a sabkha in Mauritania. Dry surface samples were collected from the Kuiseb river near Rooibank (Namibia) and the inland sabkha Sebkhet Chemchâm in Atar (Mauritania). For dust characterization, the silt crust samples were first loosened and sieved through a 63 µm mesh. The <63 µm fraction was used for all analyses, including specific surface area, total organic carbon (TOC), δ¹³C-TOC, elemental composition, mineral composition and bioavailable Iron(III). These dust samples were subsequently used in incubation experiments with Shewanella loihica. Details of those experiments are provided in a separate dataset. This dataset contains only the dust characterization data.