When you hear about something strange showing up in satellite footage, it sounds immediately ominous. It’s truly alarming when scientists sound the alarm over a brown zone longer than a continent. but what exactly yes A brown streak across the Atlantic? More importantly, should we be worried?
Satellites began to detect a brown streak stretching from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. The strange object is actually 37.5 million tons of brown seaweed, a species called pelagic Sargassum that was once only found in the Sargasso Sea.
Over the past 15 years, however, it has been spreading into the Atlantic Ocean, which is already at a “tipping point.” Researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have been analyzing four decades of satellite data documenting the rapid growth of seaweed in the Atlantic Ocean. The phenomenon, now known as the “Great Sargasso Belt,” not only destroys marine habitats and destroys beaches, it may also accelerate global warming.
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Why does brown seaweed form a ribbon in the Atlantic Ocean?
Brown seaweed floating in the ocean – Al Jazeera via YouTube
Why is pelagic Sargassum spreading at such an alarming rate? Scientists have been studying this phenomenon since the 1980s and found that the nitrogen content in brown seaweed increased by 55% between 1980 and 2020 – and the nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio also increased by 50%.
That means brown seaweed doesn’t just get its nutrients from natural ocean upwelling, a process in which warm water is pushed away from shorelines, allowing more cold, nutrient-rich deep-sea water to rise to the surface. Brown seaweed is leeching nutrients from the land due to human activities such as agricultural runoff and wastewater discharges.
Pelagic Sargassum enters the Atlantic Ocean via ocean currents, especially when the Amazon River floods. Rather than disappearing away from the safe haven of the Sargasso Sea, the brown seaweed thrives in this new location thanks to the increased nutrients.
Dangers of the Great Sargassum Belt
Brown seaweed on the beach shore – The Ocean Race: Racing For the Ocean via YouTube
The rapid increase in brown algae in the Atlantic over the past few decades has caused some alarming events. “These nutrient-rich waters fuel high-biomass events along the Gulf Coast, resulting in mass strandings, costly beach cleanups, and even the emergency shutdown of a Florida nuclear power plant in 1991,” said Dr. Brian Lapointe, lead author of the harmful algae study and research professor at Florida Atlantic University.
While brown seaweed as a species is not harmful and is even home to more than 100 species of fish, invertebrates and sea turtles, this new brown zone has severely damaged the ecosystem. Large amounts of sargassum wash ashore and begin to rot, releasing toxic hydrogen sulfide gas as they decompose. Decaying seaweed destroys coral reefs, reduces oxygen around beaches and emits harmful greenhouse gases, disrupting climate feedback loops.
Researchers are monitoring brown zones and warning humans to reduce nutrient runoff from the coast. If nothing changes, the brown seaweed could produce similar phenomena in other areas, meaning more bands of large sargassum appear on the ocean. According to recent satellite footage, there is still time to combat climate change if changes are made.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
