Sargassum blooms in the Atlantic Ocean – From a burden to an asset

Marx, Ute C.; Roles, John; Hankamer, Ben

doi:10.1016/j.algal.2021.102188

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In order to determine the elemental profile of the sargassum collected and used in this study, the elemental analysis of sargassum particles (SGP) was determined by energydispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) on a Xenemetrix EX3600 spectrometer, which consists of an X-ray tube with a selection of 1-No, 2-Ti, and 3-Fe anodes, as the X-rays source, with a 50 V, 1 mA power supply (regulated according to the selected source), and a Si (Li) detector with a resolution of 143 eV to 5.9 keV, in an air atmosphere. An X-ray sample turret in the equipment allows us to analyze 10 samples at a time, and the quantitative analysis was carried out by the in-built software nEXT [26]. The SARA (saturates, aromatics, resins, asphaltenes) chemical composition of the pure asphalt was determined employing an MK-6 Iatroscan equipment [27].…”

Section: Preparation and Characterization Of Asphalt Blendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study is an elemental analysis that uses gamma radiation to determine the content of essential and non-essential elements in the sample; however, the selected anode limits the elements' detection. This study was designed to investigate the elemental profile of seaweed sargassum using the EDXRF technique [26,30]. Shekhar et al [30] and Rodríguez-Martínez et al [31] also used this technique to determine the elemental composition of sargassum.…”

Section: Elemental Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sargassum-Modified Asphalt: Effect of Particle Size on Its Physicochemical, Rheological, and Morphological Properties

et al. 2021

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The effect of sargassum particle size on the final properties of sargassum-modified asphalt is investigated in this article. Seaweed sargassum particles were first obtained and characterized through elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction, and FTIR spectroscopy. Additionally, pure and sargassum-modified asphalt blends were evaluated through physical and rheological tests such as penetration, softening point, thermal stability, dynamic viscosity, failure temperature, and epifluorescence microscopy. Modified asphalt blends were prepared by the hot mixing technique using different proportions of sargassum particles of two maximum sizes: 500 μm and 850 μm. Incorporating 3.0 wt.% of sargassum particles under 500 μm into the asphalt increased the viscosity of the original binder by a factor of 2.5 and its complex modulus by a factor of 1.9. At the same time, its failure temperature was 11 °C higher than the reference asphalt, which implies an improved viscoelastic behavior and rutting resistance at high temperatures. The study results suggest that the particles under 500 μm were responsible for the most significant effect on the final properties of the asphalt. Moreover, the storage stability test revealed that the modified asphalt blends are stable when the sargassum particle content was kept below 3.0 wt.%. The statistical analysis of the effect of sargassum particle size and concentration on the modified asphalt properties revealed that the rheological behavior is more affected by the modifier particle size; in contrast, the conventional physical properties were more determined by its concentration. Therefore, using low proportions of fine sargassum particles is efficient for improving the physical and rheological properties of the original asphalt, which is not only positive from the asphalt modification technology point of view but also from a sustainable perspective, since seaweed sargassum has become a useless plague in many coastal regions.

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Section: Preparation and Characterization Of Asphalt Blendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Elemental Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Sargassum-Modified Asphalt: Effect of Particle Size on Its Physicochemical, Rheological, and Morphological Properties

et al. 2021

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“…Once washed up on beaches, Sargassum decomposes, producing a gas impacting inhabitants' health, tourism and the coastal environment. Scientific researches are conducted to gain an understanding of the evolution of the Sargassum [3,4]. Remote sensing techniques can provide interesting information regarding standing stock forecasts in terms of spatial location, period of occurrence and abundance [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvement of Atmospheric Correction of Satellite Sentinel-3/OLCI Data for Oceanic Waters in Presence of Sargassum

et al. 2022

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The invasive species of brown algae Sargassum gathers in large aggregations in the Caribbean Sea, and has done so especially over the last decade. These aggregations wash up on shores and decompose, leading to many socio-economic issues for the population and the coastal ecosystem. Satellite ocean color data sensors such as Sentinel-3/OLCI can be used to detect the presence of Sargassum and estimate its fractional coverage and biomass. The derivation of Sargassum presence and abundance from satellite ocean color data first requires atmospheric correction; however, the atmospheric correction procedure that is commonly used for oceanic waters needs to be adapted when dealing with the occurrence of Sargassum because the non-zero water reflectance in the near infrared band induced by Sargassum optical signature could lead to Sargassum being wrongly identified as aerosols. In this study, this difficulty is overcome by interpolating aerosol and sunglint reflectance between nearby Sargassum-free pixels. The proposed method relies on the local homogeneity of the aerosol reflectance between Sargassum and Sargassum-free areas. The performance of the adapted atmospheric correction algorithm over Sargassum areas is evaluated. The proposed method is demonstrated to result in more plausible aerosol and sunglint reflectances. A reduction of between 75% and 88% of pixels showing a negative water reflectance above 600 nm were noticed after the correction of the several images.

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“…The abundant presence of Sargassum in the Sargasso Sea has been known since the 15th century; however, in recent years, the presence of Sargassum has increased in the Caribbean sea due to a recurrent great Atlantic Sargassum belt (GASB) that has been observed in satellite imagery since 2011, often extending from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico ( Wang et al, 2019 ). Although Sargassum is important in the open ocean, several scientific studies confirm the severe damage of large concentrations of Sargassum caused to flora and fauna of coastal ecosystems ( Rodríguez-Martínez et al, 2019 ), the health of the inhabitants of coastal towns ( Resiere et al, 2019 ), and the economies of the cities and countries affected by the phenomenon ( Marx, Roles & Hankamer, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of semantic segmentation for mapping Sargassum on beaches

Arellano‐Verdejo

Santos-Romero²,

Lazcano-Hernandez

2022

PeerJ

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The unusual arrival of Sargassum on Caribbean beaches is an emerging problem that has generated numerous challenges. The monitoring, visualization, and estimation of Sargassum coverage on the beaches remain a constant complication. This study proposes a new mapping methodology to estimate Sargassum coverage on the beaches. Semantic segmentation of geotagged photographs allows the generation of accurate maps showing the percent coverage of Sargassum. The first dataset of segmented Sargassum images was built for this study and used to train the proposed model. The results demonstrate that the currently proposed method has an accuracy of 91%, improving on the results reported in the state-of-the-art method where data was also collected through a crowdsourcing scheme, in which only information on the presence and absence of Sargassum is displayed.

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Sargassum blooms in the Atlantic Ocean – From a burden to an asset

Cited by 29 publications

References 51 publications

Sargassum-Modified Asphalt: Effect of Particle Size on Its Physicochemical, Rheological, and Morphological Properties

Sargassum-Modified Asphalt: Effect of Particle Size on Its Physicochemical, Rheological, and Morphological Properties

Improvement of Atmospheric Correction of Satellite Sentinel-3/OLCI Data for Oceanic Waters in Presence of Sargassum

Use of semantic segmentation for mapping Sargassum on beaches

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