RT Journal Article
T1 Simulating transport pathways of pelagic Sargassum from the Equatorial Atlantic into the Caribbean Sea
A1 Putman, Nathan
A1 Goni, Gustavo Jorge
A1 Gramer, Lewis J.
A1 Hu, Chuanmin
A1 Johns, Elizabeth M.
A1 Triñanes Fernández, Joaquín Ángel
A1 Wang, Mengqiu
K1 Movement ecology
K1 Ocean circulation model
K1 Remote sensing
K1 Sargassum natans
K1 Sargassum fluitans
AB Since 2011, beach inundation of massive amounts of pelagic Sargassum algae has occurred around the Caribbean nations and islands. Previous studies have applied satellite ocean color to determine the origins of this phenomenon. These techniques, combined with complementary approaches, suggest that, rather than blooms originating in the Caribbean, they arrive from the Equatorial Atlantic. However, oceanographic context for these occurrences remains limited. Here, we present results from synthetic particle tracking experiments that characterize the interannual and seasonal dynamics of ocean currents and winds likely to influence the transport of Sargassum from the Equatorial Atlantic into the Caribbean Sea. Our findings suggest that Sargassum present in the western Equatorial Atlantic (west of longitude 50°W) has a high probability of entering the Caribbean Sea within a year’s time. Transport routes include the Guiana Current, North Brazil Current Rings, and the North Equatorial Current north of the North Brazil Current Retroflection. The amount of Sargassum following each route varies seasonally. This has important implications for the amount of time it takes Sargassum to reach the Caribbean Sea. By weighting particle transport predictions with Sargassum concentrations at release sites in the western Equatorial Atlantic, our simulations explain close to 90% of the annual variation in observed Sargassum abundance entering the Caribbean Sea. Additionally, results from our numerical experiments are in good agreement with observations of variability in the timing of Sargassum movement from the Equatorial Atlantic to the Caribbean, and observations of the spatial extent of Sargassum occurrence throughout the Caribbean. However, this work also highlights some areas of uncertainty that should be examined, in particular the effect of “windage” and other surface transport processes on the movement of Sargassum. Our results provide a useful launching point to predict Sargassum beaching events along the Caribbean islands well in advance of their occurrence and, more generally, to understand the movement ecology of a floating ecosystem that is essential habitat to numerous marine species
PB Elsevier
SN 0079-6611
YR 2018
FD 2018
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/24294
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/24294
LA eng
NO Progress in Oceanography, Volume 165, July–August 2018, Pages 205-214
NO NFP, GJG, LJG, EJ and JT acknowledge support from the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. JT was also supported by NOAA/OceanWatch. CH and MW acknowledge support from NASA (NNX14AL98G, NNX16AR74G, and NNX17AE57G) and the William and Elsie Knight Endowed Fellowship. Funding for the development of HYCOM has been provided by the National Ocean Partnership Program and the Office of Naval Research
DS Minerva
RD 22 abr 2026