Written by: Carlyn Scott, Science Communications Assistant
Floating macroalgae called Sargassum has been in the news recently, and not for good reason. Forming massive floating blooms that can stretch across the Atlantic Ocean, such as the 5,000-mile and 13-million-ton behemoth seen in April 2023, Sargassum can wash ashore in the Caribbean and Florida. Once on shore, the decomposing macroalgae can emit a mixture of dangerous gases, including hydrogen sulfide, that adversely affects the environment and human health.
A five-year, $3.2-million grant from the aims to better forecast Sargassum blooms and prevent them from plaguing coastal communities. The 黑料网吃瓜爆料College of Marine Science (CMS) will receive about half of the total funding amount with the remainder awarded to collaborators at , the (CariCOOS), , and the .
Brian Barnes who will lead the grant, has been a researcher in the Optical Oceanography Lab of Chaunmin Hu at CMS since 2013.
鈥淯p until this point, we have been using very coarse resolution satellite data to observe Sargassum,鈥� said Brian Barnes, assistant research professor and physical oceanographer at CMS and the project's principal investigator. 鈥淭his grant will help us look at Sargassum at a finer spatial scale, and this capability will eventually allow the scientific community to provide real-time monitoring and forecasting.鈥�
Barnes, who has studied Sargassum at the College of Marine Science鈥檚 since 2015, will use satellite, hydrographic, and water-quality data to illuminate the effects of Sargassum on coastal waters and beaches in order to develop better forecasting solutions. The goal is to increase the scale at which researchers can monitor Sargassum blooms.
Scale matters with Sargassum. While large accumulations of Sargassum in offshore waters can easily be observed via satellite, the new monitoring system wil