&lt;i&gt;Sargassum&lt;/i&gt; Invasion of Coastal Environments: A Growing Concern

Louime, Clifford; Fortune, Jodany; Gervais, Gary

doi:10.3844/ajessp.2017.58.64

Cited by 92 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Both satellite and modeled surface current data point to the North Equatorial Recirculation Region as the origin of recent mass blooms north of the mouth of the Amazon, between Brazil and West Africa, in an area not previously associated with Sargassum growth [32]. A number of factors, including nutrients, rising sea temperatures, and Sahara dust storms, have been put forward as potential causes [33]. Specific models developed to analyze satellite imagery and detect floating algae-the Floating Algae Index (FAI) [34] or the Alternate Floating Algae Index (AFAI) [35]-reveal that only in recent years was the area subject to mass proliferation of Sargassum: satellite imagery prior 2011 shows the area to be "largely free from seaweed".…”

Section: Sargassum Monitoring By Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of a Smartphone-Based Camera System for Coastal Image Segmentation and Sargassum monitoring

Valentini

Balouin

2020

JMSE

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Coastal video monitoring has proven to be a valuable ground-based technique to investigate ocean processes. Presently, there is a growing need for automatic, technically efficient, and inexpensive solutions for image processing. Moreover, beach and coastal water quality problems are becoming significant and need attention. This study employs a methodological approach to exploit low-cost smartphone-based images for coastal image classification. The objective of this paper is to present a methodology useful for supervised classification for image semantic segmentation and its application for the development of an automatic warning system for Sargassum algae detection and monitoring.A pixel-wise convolutional neural network (CNN) has demonstrated optimal performance in the classification of natural images by using abstracted deep features. Conventional CNNs demand a great deal of resources in terms of processing time and disk space. Therefore, CNN classification with superpixels has recently become a field of interest. In this work, a CNN-based deep learning framework is proposed that combines sticky-edge adhesive superpixels. The results indicate that a cheap camera-based video monitoring system is a suitable data source for coastal image classification, with optimal accuracy in the range between 75% and 96%. Furthermore, an application of the method for an ongoing case study related to Sargassum monitoring in the French Antilles proved to be very effective for developing a warning system, aiming at evaluating floating algae and algae that had washed ashore, supporting municipalities in beach management.

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Section: Sargassum Monitoring By Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of a Smartphone-Based Camera System for Coastal Image Segmentation and Sargassum monitoring

Valentini

Balouin

2020

JMSE

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“…Sargassum, traditionally an important nursery for marine life in the Western Atlantic, has shown such explosive growth in the last decade that it now threatens coastal areas from Mexico to West Africa. The seaweed piles up on beaches, creating a putrid barrier threatening plants and animals, and its decomposition is associated with hydrogen sulfide emissions and regional anoxia [165]. The underlying causes of this transformation of Sargassum from beneficial to extremely harmful algae are unknown, but warming oceans, disturbances in liquid boundaries, and changing currents have been implicated [166].…”

Section: Emerging Threatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Aerosolized Coal Fly Ash in the Global Plankton Imbalance: Case of Florida's Toxic Algae Crisis

Whiteside

Herndon²

2019

AJOB

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Red tide is the term used in Florida (USA) and elsewhere to describe a type of marine harmful algal bloom (HAB) that grows out of control and produces neurotoxins that adversely affect humans, birds, fish, shellfish, and marine mammals. HABs are becoming more abundant, extensive, and closer to shore, and longer in duration than any time in recorded history. Our objective is to review the effects the multifold components of aerosolized coal fly ash as they relate to the increasing occurrences of HABs. Aerosolized coal fly ash (CFA) pollutants from non-sequestered coal-fired power plant emissions and from undisclosed, although “hidden in plain sight,” tropospheric particulate geoengineering operations are inflicting irreparable damage to the world’s surface water-bodies and causing great harm to human health (including lung cancer, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases) and environmental health (including major die-offs of insects, birds and trees). Florida’s ever-growing toxic nightmare of red tides and blue-green algae is a microcosm of similar activity globally. Atmospheric deposition of aerosol particulates, most importantly bioavailable iron, has drastically shifted the global plankton community balance in the direction of harmful algae and cyanobacterial blooms in fresh and salt water. Proposed geoengineering schemes of iron fertilization of the ocean would only make a bad situation unimaginably worse. Based on the evidence presented here, the global spread of harmful algae blooms will only be contained by rapidly reducing particulate air pollution both by implementation of universal industrial particulate-trapping and by the immediate halting of jet-sprayed particulate aerosols. Corrective actions depend not only on international cooperation, but on ending the deadly code of silence throughout government, academe, and media on the subject of ongoing tropospheric aerosol geoengineering. Long-standing weather control, climate intervention, and geoengineering operations have come to threaten not only all humans but the entire web of life on Earth.

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“…This dust absorbs moisture and contributes to episodes of drought in the Caribbean, as it reduces cloud formation. Also, it can serve as a source of nutrients in the Atlantic Ocean and may contribute to an increase in the abundance of Sargassum (Clifford et al, 2017).…”

Section: Trade Windsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of climatic factors on Sargassum arrivals to the coasts of the Dominican Republic

Méndez‐Tejeda¹,

JimÃ©nez²

2019

J. Oceanogr. Mar. Sci.

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Since 2011, the coasts of North America, Mexico, and the Caribbean have experienced an unusual increase in the arrival of Sargassum. A large amount of Sargassum has caused significant economic losses in the tourism sector of the Dominican Republic as well as the entire Caribbean region. The present article discusses the possible factors contributing toward this unusual increase. Large Sargassum masses are generated in the Sargasso Sea. In this region, several current systems converge with the North Atlantic Subtropical Anticyclone (NASH), which has an area of displacement extending from Brazil to Africa. Sargassum is transported toward Africa, where it meets the Northern Equatorial Recirculation Region (NERR) before recirculating back toward the Caribbean in a clockwise pattern (Putman et al., 2018; Wang, 2007). Upon returning to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Sargasso grows flowers and distributes across the region. The effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is also analyzed as well as the possible influence of Sahara dust, which acts as a source of nutrients for the growth and development of Sargassum. In the Dominican Republic, the species found in the current study included Sargassum fluitans and Sargassum natans. As for the species Sargassum polyceratium var. ovatum, the variety ovatum has not been reported before on the coasts of the Dominican Republic.

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<i>Sargassum</i> Invasion of Coastal Environments: A Growing Concern

Cited by 92 publications

References 8 publications

Assessment of a Smartphone-Based Camera System for Coastal Image Segmentation and Sargassum monitoring

Assessment of a Smartphone-Based Camera System for Coastal Image Segmentation and Sargassum monitoring

Role of Aerosolized Coal Fly Ash in the Global Plankton Imbalance: Case of Florida's Toxic Algae Crisis

Influence of climatic factors on Sargassum arrivals to the coasts of the Dominican Republic

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