The Atlantic Sargassum invasion impedes beach access for nesting sea turtles

Maurer, Andrew S.; Stapleton, Seth; Layman, Craig A.; Reiskind, Martha O Burford

doi:10.1016/j.ecochg.2021.100034

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Since 2011, annually recurring holopelagic Sargassum coastal inundation events across the equatorial Atlantic have resulted in negative economic and ecological impacts ( van Tussenbroek et al, 2017 ; Bartlett & Elmer, 2021 ; Hendy et al, 2021 ; Oxenford et al, 2021 ; Maurer et al, 2021 ), thus prompting advances in satellite detection and transport models for prediction of beaching times and locations. Originally, the Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI; only available for MERIS and OLCI sensors) was used in remote detection of floating Sargassum ( Gower et al, 2006 ; Gower & King, 2011 ), but this index does not differentiate macroalgae from intense phytoplankton blooms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In situ observation of holopelagic Sargassum distribution and aggregation state across the entire North Atlantic from 2011 to 2020

Goodwin

Siuda

Schell

2022

PeerJ

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Between 2011 and 2020, 6,790 visual observations of holopelagic Sargassum were recorded across the North Atlantic Ocean to describe regional distribution, presence, and aggregation state at hourly and 10 km scales. Influences of oceanographic region and wind/sea conditions as well as temporal trends were considered; marine megafauna associates documented the ecological value of aggregations. Holopelagic Sargassum was present in 64% of observations from the western North Atlantic. Dispersed holopelagic Sargassum fragments and clumps were found in 97% of positive observations whereas aggregated windrows (37%) and mats (1%) were less common. Most field observations noted holopelagic Sargassum in quantities below the AFAI algorithm detection limit for the MODIS sensor. Aggregation state patterns were similar across regions; windrow proportion increased with higher wind speeds. In 8 of 10 years in the Sargasso Sea holopelagic Sargassum was found in over 65% of observations. In contrast, the Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea exhibited greater inter-annual variability (1–88% and 11–78% presence, respectively) that did not align with extremes in central Atlantic holopelagic Sargassum areal coverage determined from satellite observations. Megafauna association patterns varied by taxonomic group. While some study regions were impacted by holopelagic Sargassum dynamics in the equatorial Atlantic, the Sargasso Sea had consistently high presence and operated independently. Field observations capture important dynamics occurring at fine spatiotemporal scales, including transient aggregation processes and ecological value for megafauna associates, and therefore remain essential to future studies of holopelagic Sargassum.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In situ observation of holopelagic Sargassum distribution and aggregation state across the entire North Atlantic from 2011 to 2020

Goodwin

Siuda

Schell

2022

PeerJ

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“…For instance, seagrass and coral mortality has been observed to increase due to decreasing light, PH, and oxygen levels in nearshore waters, associated with the decaying sargassum masses on the beach (Van Tussenbroek et al, 2017). Also, fish and crustacean mortality have been related to increased ammonium and hydrogen sulfide concentrations and hypoxia in reef lagoons (Rodríguez-Martínez et al, 2019), and nesting of turtles has been hindered due to the sargassum masses on the beach and in shallow water (Maurer et al, 2015(Maurer et al, , 2019. Besides, local economies suffered with a reduced income as a result of a lower number of beach visitors during the sargassum season and costs associated with artificial sargassum removal (Chávez et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Beaching and Natural Removal Dynamics of Pelagic Sargassum in a Fringing‐Reef Lagoon

et al. 2021

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Extraordinarily large quantities of the pelagic brown macroalgae Sargassum spp., consisting of species S. fluitans and S. natans and hereafter referred to as sargassum, invaded the shores of the Caribbean and tropical West Africa in 2011 (Franks et al., 2012;Gower et al., 2013) and have been reoccurring since then (Johns et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2019). Drifting on the ocean surface, sargassum provides shelter and habitat for marine species (e.g., fish, shrimp, crab, and turtles). Once arriving in nearshore waters and washing ashore,

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“…The analysis was systematized through a series of routines to process the images, where the colour scale of the area was transformed from RGB (red-greenblue) to HSV (hue-saturation-value), to improve detection and better solve colour variations of the sargasso caused by daylight changes and the degradation of the algae. The segmentation of the area covered by sargasso was done by optimal thresholding, and the sargasso coverage polygons were estimated and transformed to geographic coordinates using georeferenced control points following Simarro et al (2017) and Rutten et al (2021), showing that this kind of analysis provides a very valuable insight on the dynamics (arrival and separation) of onshore sargasso.…”

Section: Local Beached Sargasso Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Jouanno et al (2021) showed that there was no significant increase in riverine influence in areas where sargasso proliferated. On the other hand, Johns et al (2020) have proposed that increased winds, created by an anomaly in the North Atlantic Oscillation in 2010, may have transported large masses of sargasso from the Sargasso Sea into the NERR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiscale distribution patterns of pelagic rafts of sargasso (Sargassum spp.) in the Mexican Caribbean (2014–2020)

Uribe-Martínez¹,

Berriel-Bueno

Chávez

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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As the biomass of pelagic Sargassum spp. increased across the North Atlantic equatorial recirculation region from 2011 onwards, massive rafts of sargasso appeared in the Western Caribbean in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020. These events raised concerns regarding their negative consequences on the environment, local income, and human wellbeing. As adequate monitoring and analysis tools are needed for designing in-water and on-beach control strategies to reduce potential negative impacts, more robust and spatially explicit information is needed in order to improve sargasso management and focus restoration efforts. In this paper, we offer a spatiotemporal multiscale description of sargasso distribution and dynamics for 2014–2020 in the Mexican Caribbean: (1) for the entire region (millions of km2); (2) at the local scale (thousands of km2) evaluating the dynamics inside the reef lagoon at Puerto Morelos, Mexico; and finally, (3) specific beach observations (hundreds of km2) derived from data on beach cleaning volumes. Fifteen areas in the Mexican Caribbean, with different sargasso dispersions and on-shore accumulations, were evaluated. The areas around Tulum, Solidaridad, and Puerto Morelos have the most extreme and most frequent episodes but also exhibited the greatest seasonal variability. Extreme sargasso presence can occur in the Western Caribbean in any season, albeit with increasing coverage and recurrence in the summer. Images from a coastal video monitoring station at Puerto Morelos showed that massive sargasso beaching was associated with low energy conditions (Hs< 0.25 m, wind speed<4 m/s, neap tide), while non-accumulation of sargasso on the beach occurred under high energy conditions (Hs >0.4 m, wind speed = 8 m/s, spring tide). Time-series analyses of sargasso beaching showed different periods of historic maximum sargasso coverage over July–October 2018 and others in January–February 2019. Wind and wave regimes influenced sargasso in distinct ways, depending on the coastal section, probably related to coastline morphology, oceanic regime, or the extent of the continental platform. This work presents the longest systematic time series (2014-2020) of high resolution satellite detected sargasso in Mexico. Spatial and temporal patterns are proposed as fundamental steps for managing sargasso accumulations.

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The Atlantic Sargassum invasion impedes beach access for nesting sea turtles

Cited by 19 publications

References 46 publications

In situ observation of holopelagic Sargassum distribution and aggregation state across the entire North Atlantic from 2011 to 2020

In situ observation of holopelagic Sargassum distribution and aggregation state across the entire North Atlantic from 2011 to 2020

Beaching and Natural Removal Dynamics of Pelagic Sargassum in a Fringing‐Reef Lagoon

Multiscale distribution patterns of pelagic rafts of sargasso (Sargassum spp.) in the Mexican Caribbean (2014–2020)

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