51�Թ�

As Santa Ana wind conditions continue to stoke fears of resurgent wildfires across Los Angeles County, health officials are warning of yet another wind-borne threat: ash and dust from active fire zones and burn scars.

They carry seeds too heavy to be wind-borne across forests.

Hidden from sight are the creatures whose labor makes the forest possible — the multitudes of microorganisms and invertebrates involved in maintaining that soil, and the animals responsible for delivering seeds too heavy to be wind-borne to the places where they will sprout.

The instrument exhales a low, forlorn hoot — an artist’s recreation of the sound the wind-borne sand makes in a special stretch of desert, whether anyone’s listening or not.

Studies in the U.S. and France since 2015 suggest the virus can be carried wind-borne dust particles.