The great Atlantic Sargassum belt

Mengqiu Wang1, Chuanmin Hu2, Brian B Barnes2, Gary T Mitchum3, Brian Lapointe4 and Joseph Peter Montoya5, (1)University of South Florida Tampa, Tampa, FL, United States, (2)University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, United States, (3)Univ South Florida, College of Marine Science, Saint Petersburg, FL, United States, (4)Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, United States, (5)Georgia Inst Technology, Atlanta, United States
Abstract:
Pelagic Sargassum is abundant in the Sargasso Sea, but a recurrent great Atlantic Sargassum belt (GASB) has been observed in satellite imagery since 2011, often extending from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. In June 2018, the 8850-kilometer GASB contained >20 million metric tons of Sargassum biomass. The spatial distribution of the GASB is mostly driven by ocean circulation. The bloom of 2011 might be a result of Amazon River discharge in previous years, but recent increases and interannual variability after 2011 appear to be driven by upwelling off West Africa during boreal winter and by Amazon River discharge during spring and summer, indicating a possible regime shift and raising the possibility that recurrent blooms in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea may become the new norm.
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