Sargassum accumulation may spell trouble for nesting sea turtles

Maurer, Andrew S.; Neef, Emma De; Stapleton, Seth

doi:10.1890/1540-9295-13.7.394

Cited by 69 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Since 2011, massive Sargassum beaching events have occurred in the Caribbean Islands, causing significant environmental and economic problems [ Gower et al ., ; Maurer et al ., ]. Similar beaching events have also been reported in western Africa and northern Brazil [ Oyesiku and Egunyomi , ; Széchy et al ., ].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Predicting Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean Sea from MODIS observations

Wang

2017

Geophysical Research Letters

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Recurrent and significant Sargassum beaching events in the Caribbean Sea (CS) have caused serious environmental and economic problems, calling for a long‐term prediction capacity of Sargassum blooms. Here we present predictions based on a hindcast of 2000–2016 observations from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which showed Sargassum abundance in the CS and the Central West Atlantic (CWA), as well as connectivity between the two regions with time lags. This information was used to derive bloom and nonbloom probability matrices for each 1° square in the CS for the months of May–August, predicted from bloom conditions in a hotspot region in the CWA in February. A suite of standard statistical measures were used to gauge the prediction accuracy, among which the user's accuracy and kappa statistics showed high fidelity of the probability maps in predicting both blooms and nonblooms in the eastern CS with several months of lead time, with overall accuracy often exceeding 80%. The bloom probability maps from this hindcast analysis will provide early warnings to better study Sargassum blooms and prepare for beaching events near the study region. This approach may also be extendable to many other regions around the world that face similar challenges and opportunities of macroalgal blooms and beaching events.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Predicting Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean Sea from MODIS observations

Wang

2017

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Leachates and particulate organic matter from stranded decaying algal masses depleted the oxygen in near shore waters and reduced visibility of the water column, causing mortality of near-shore seagrasses and fauna (van Tussenbroek et al, 2017;Rodríguez-Martínez et al, 2019). Onshore and near shore masses of sargasso interfered with the seaward journeys of the juvenile turtles (Maurer, De Neef & Stapleton, 2015), affected sea turtle nestings (Maurer, Stapleton & Layman, 2018) and altered the trophic structure of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum in coastal marine systems (Cabanillas-Terán et al, 2019). Massive beachings also enhanced beach erosion (van Tussenbroek et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Element concentrations in pelagicSargassumalong the Mexican Caribbean coast in 2018-2019

Rodríguez-Martínez

Roy

Torrescano-Valle

et al. 2020

PeerJ

120

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The massive influx of pelagic Sargassum spp. (sargasso) into the Mexican Caribbean Sea has caused major deterioration of the coastal environment and has affected the tourism industry as well as livelihoods since 2015. Species of Sargassum have high capacity to absorb metals; thus, leachates of sargasso may contribute to contamination by potentially toxic metals when they drain into the sea and into the groundwater when dumped in inadequate land deposits. Valorization of sargasso would contribute to sustainable management; therefore, knowledge on potentially toxic metal content is necessary to define possible uses of the algae. We present concentrations of 28 elements measured using a non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analyzer (XRF) in 63 samples of sargasso collected between August 2018 and June 2019 from eight localities along ∼370 km long coastline of the Mexican Caribbean Sea. The sargasso tissues contained detectable concentrations of Al, As, Ca, Cl, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, Pb, Rb, S, Si, Sr, Th, U, V, and Zn. The element concentration in sargasso varied on spatial and temporal scales, which likely depended on the previous trajectory of the pelagic masses, and whether these had (or had not) passed through contaminated areas. Total arsenic concentration varied between 24–172 ppm DW, exceeding the maximum limit for seaweed intended as animal fooder (40 ppm DW) in 86% of the samples. For valorization, we recommend analyses of metal contents as a mandatory practice or avoiding uses for nutritional purposes. The high arsenic content is also of concern for environmental contamination of the sea and aquifer.

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“…Although typically found offshore, unusual accumulations of Sargassum dubbed “golden tides” (Smetacek & Zingone, ), began washing ashore on islands in the Caribbean during 2011 then again in 2014 and 2015, burying beaches, impacting coastal fisheries, restricting harbors, and smothering sea turtle nests (Maurer et al., ). Reports of golden tides like those in the Caribbean have also been reported in western Africa and Brazil (De Széchy, Guedes, Baeta‐Neves, & Oliveira, ; Smetacek & Zingone, ) impacting tourism, food security, and the limited budgets of coastal towns trying to remove the rotting biomass from their beaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although typically found offshore, unusual accumulations of Sargassum dubbed "golden tides" (Smetacek & Zingone, 2013), began washing ashore on islands in the Caribbean during 2011 then again in 2014 and 2015, burying beaches, impacting coastal fisheries, restricting harbors, and smothering sea turtle nests (Maurer et al, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative mitochondrial and chloroplast genomics of a genetically distinct form of Sargassum contributing to recent “Golden Tides” in the Western Atlantic

Amaral‐Zettler

Dragone

Schell

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Over the past 5 years, massive accumulations of holopelagic species of the brown macroalga Sargassum in coastal areas of the Caribbean have created “golden tides” that threaten local biodiversity and trigger economic losses associated with beach deterioration and impact on fisheries and tourism. In 2015, the first report identifying the cause of these extreme events implicated a rare form of the holopelagic species Sargassum natans (form VIII). However, since the first mention of S. natans VIII in the 1930s, based solely on morphological characters, no molecular data have confirmed this identification. We generated full‐length mitogenomes and partial chloroplast genomes of all representative holopelagic Sargassum species, S. fluitans III and S. natans I alongside the putatively rare S. natans VIII, to demonstrate small but consistent differences between S. natans I and VIII (7 bp differences out of the 34,727). Our comparative analyses also revealed that both S. natans I and S. natans VIII share a very close phylogenetic relationship with S. fluitans III (94‐ and 96‐bp differences of 34,727). We designed novel primers that amplified regions of the cox2 and cox3 marker genes with consistent polymorphic sites that enabled differentiation between the two S. natans forms (I and VIII) from each other and both from S. fluitans III in over 150 Sargassum samples including those from the 2014 golden tide event. Despite remarkable gene synteny and sequence conservation, the three Sargassum forms differ in morphology, ecology, and distribution patterns, warranting more extensive interrogation of holopelagic Sargassum genomes as a whole.

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Sargassum accumulation may spell trouble for nesting sea turtles

Cited by 69 publications

References 0 publications

Predicting Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean Sea from MODIS observations

Predicting Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean Sea from MODIS observations

Element concentrations in pelagicSargassumalong the Mexican Caribbean coast in 2018-2019

Comparative mitochondrial and chloroplast genomics of a genetically distinct form of Sargassum contributing to recent “Golden Tides” in the Western Atlantic

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