Sargassum

Nutrient content and stoichiometry of pelagic Sargassum reflects increasing nitrogen availability in the Atlantic Basin

Remote Sensing of Sargassum biomass, nutrients, & pigments

Sargassum Watch Warns of Incoming Seaweed

Phosphorus-limited photosynthesis and growth of Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans (Phaeophyceae) in the western North Atlantic

Ryther revisited: nutrient excretions by fishes enhance productivity of pelagic Sargassum in the western North Atlantic Ocean

​Since 2011, unprecedented strandings of pelagic Sargassum have occurred over broad areas of the North Atlantic basin & Caribbean Sea. These strandings, characterized by excessive biomass, are considered to be harmful algal blooms (HABs) as they have a detrimental impact on both the environment (fish kills, dead zones, toxic H2S) & the tourist-based economies of affected coastal areas. 

​Similar high biomass strandings of Sargassum increased during the 1980s & 1990s in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), impacting coastlines along both Texas and Florida. Research in the late 1980s documented the importance of boundary current circulation between the GOM, Gulf Stream, Sargasso Sea, & Caribbean region to nutrition, productivity & growth of pelagic Sargassum.