Sargassum is increasingly scarfing human-generated nutrients from tainted ocean waters, a harmful binge altering the very chemical structure of the living membrane that can smother luckless beaches in its tangle.
According to a Florida Atlantic University paper, which appeared Monday in Nature Communications, the seething pelagic flora is also creating a crust of toxic dead zones along coastlines that are critical nurseries for saltwater ecosystems.
The study, whose lead author is Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute algae expert Brian LaPointe, comes as South Florida’s east coast is already seeing an influx of seaweed that could build to challenge 2018’s record amount.
Researcher Deborah Williams found that this Vervet monkey and the rest of a colony in Dania Beach, Fla., near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport dates to a band of escapees from the old Dania Chimpanzee Farm in 1948. Most were captured, but some disappeared into a mangrove swamp. The study determined that 41 descendants live in the area today.
Deborah Williams via AP
DANIA BEACH, Fla. For about 70 years, a colony of monkeys has lived in South Florida near jets taking off from nearby Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and fuel storage tanks.
No one was quite sure where they came from. Until now.
Florida Atlantic University A new study from Florida Atlantic University discovered the origins of the monkey colony living near the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
On this Monday, May 24, episode of Sundial,
What Should Kids Learn About History?
Florida’s education commissioner Richard Corcoran believes that some teachers are indoctrinating students with critical race theory and he wants to change the history curriculum in our public schools to remove it.
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“The governor is giving [Corcoran] the authority to implement the laws that we have in place, and in places where there are no laws to create rules that can make things happen, said Jeffrey Solocheck, a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times. Just today, the governor made clear that this is a rule that he wants to see in place, that it will attack this issue of criti
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VIDEO: Sargassum, floating brown seaweed, have grown in low nutrient waters of the North Atlantic Ocean for centuries. Scientists have discovered dramatic changes in the chemistry and composition of Sargassum, transforming. view more
Credit: Brian Lapointe, Ph.D.
For centuries, pelagic Sargassum, floating brown seaweed, have grown in low nutrient waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, supported by natural nutrient sources like excretions from fishes and invertebrates, upwelling and nitrogen fixation. Using a unique historical baseline from the 1980s and comparing it to samples collected since 2010, researchers from Florida Atlantic University s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and collaborators have discovered dramatic changes in the chemistry and composition of Sargassum, transforming this vibrant living organism into a toxic dead zone.