Abstract
Mass blooms and stranding of pelagic Sargassum spp. in the Atlantic, termed Sargassum events are becoming more frequent in response to several factors: nutrient enrichment, increased temperature, changes in climatological patterns, but some causes remain unknown. The magnitude of Sargassum events in the Caribbean Sea since 2011 make us aware of the necessity to tackle these events, and macroalgal blooms generally, not only locally but on a regional scale. At least three pelagic species of Sargassum have been dominant in the blooms that have occurred along Caribbean coastlines in great quantities. Due to the regional scale of these events and its complexity, its management should be based on basic and applied information generated by different collaborative actors (national and international) through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work. To address this, we propose different phases (exploratory, valorization, and management) and the approach for their study should include detection, collection, stabilization and experimentation. This information will help identify the potential applications and/or ecological services to develop for the exploitation and mitigation strategies in the region. Relevant challenges and opportunities are discussed, remarking on the necessity to evaluate the spatiotemporal variation in the abundance and chemical composition of floating and stranded biomass. The above-mentioned will provide management strategies and economic opportunities as possible solutions to their extensive impact in the Caribbean.
Highlights
Mass blooms and stranding of pelagic Sargassum spp. in the Atlantic, termed Sargassum events are becoming more frequent in response to several factors: nutrient enrichment, increased temperature, changes in climatological patterns, but some causes remain unknown
At least three pelagic species of Sargassum have been dominant in the blooms that have occurred along Caribbean coastlines in great quantities
Sargassum Events Along the Caribbean Coast they are the habitat of several species of the pelagic algae in the genus Sargassum, which supports and incredible amount of marine life (Coston-Clements et al, 1991; Huffard et al, 2014)
Summary
In the present work we review some of the impacts reported for the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts and the strategies that should be followed to develop an adequate management of this phenomenon, while identifying some of the challenges and opportunities for the Caribbean region. “Sargassum event” has been defined by Fidai et al (2020) as a “continuous bloom of any Sargassum in open oceans or, an aggregation of landed Sargassum with the potential to disrupt local social, economic or ecosystem functioning, or to impact human health; an event can affect one country or several contiguous countries.” In the present manuscript, we use “Sargassum event” as an appropriate term for the observed phenomenon in the Caribbean region, which includes a large quantity of stranded biomass that generates ecological and socioeconomic impacts in the coastal areas.
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