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"Over its broad distribution, the newly-formed Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt can be supported by nitrogen and phosphorus inputs from a variety of sources including discharges from the Congo, Amazon and Mississippi rivers, upwelling off the coast of Africa, vertical mixing, equatorial upwelling, atmospheric deposition from Saharan dust, and biomass burning of vegetation in central and South Africa,” Brian Lapointe, senior author on the paper and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch, said in Monday's release.  Sargasso Sea Sargassum is a constant presence in the Atlantic, so much so th...

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 ...

Loading video... 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...

Sargassum Now World’s Largest Harmful Algal Bloom Due to Nitrogen A photo taken this month shows Sargassum piled up on a beach in Palm Beach County, Florida. (Photo 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 H...