Development of Sargassum Seaweed Tracking Tools

Prakash, Daniel; Dicopolous, Jaden; Roarty, Hugh; Morel, Julio; Canals, M.; Evans, Colin

doi:10.1109/oceans.2018.8604742

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…CARICOOS, the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System, publishes daily imagery of Floating Algae Index in the region (Franks et al, 2016) 26 issued by the Optical Oceanography Laboratory at the University of South Florida. An ongoing effort led by H. Hoarty at Rutgers University and supported by CARICOOS (Prakash et al, 2018) utilizes surface current data derived from high-frequency radar (HFR) coupled to satellite imagery to forecast Sargassum arrivals into the CARICOOS region.…”

Section: The United States Caribbean Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling Up From Regional Case Studies to a Global Harmful Algal Bloom Observing System

Anderson¹,

Berdalet²,

Kudela³

et al. 2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Anderson et al. Harmful Algal Bloom Observing System automated, near real-time information from nearshore and offshore sites situated in HAB transport pathways to provide improved, advanced HAB warnings; (4) merge ecological knowledge and models with existing Earth System Modeling Frameworks to enhance end-to-end capabilities in forecasting and scenario-building; (5) provide seasonal to decadal forecasts to allow governments to plan, adapt to a changing marine environment, and ensure coastal industries are supported and sustained in the years ahead; and (6) support implementation of the recent calls for action by the United Nations Decade 2010 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to develop indicators that are relevant to an effective and global HAB early warning system.

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Section: The United States Caribbean Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling Up From Regional Case Studies to a Global Harmful Algal Bloom Observing System

Anderson¹,

Berdalet²,

Kudela³

et al. 2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…The channel between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the Mona Passage, has been previously shown to act as a transport barrier or filter between these two jurisdictions (Baums et al, 2006;Beltrań et al, 2017). However, the flow in the channel is highly variable (Metcalf et al, 1977), allowing for a small likelihood of periodic connections between populations across the passage (Baums et al, 2006;Beltrań et al, 2017;Prakash et al, 2018, Willis et al, 2022. Since our putative mesophotic spawning site was located at the Abrir La Sierra reef (Garcia-Sais et al, 2012), on the eastern edge of the Mona Passage, it is expected that probabilities of cross-channel connections might be observed in the explored scenario.…”

Section: Discussion Connectivity Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploitation Drives Changes in the Population Connectivity of Queen Conch (Aliger gigas)

et al. 2022

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The queen conch, Aliger gigas, is an endemic and iconic marine gastropod of the Wider Caribbean region that has been harvested for thousands of years. Conch are slow-moving and require contact to mate; overfishing has reduced populations in many areas compromising its rates of reproduction. Long-range dispersal and mixing between distinct populations occur in the queen conch’s early life history stages, when pelagic larvae are transported by oceanic currents. Genetic studies suggest that gene flow between populations decreases as the distance between populations increases. Here, we assessed how the population connectivity of conch changes with spatially variable patterns of fishing exploitation by simulating larval dispersal and comparing the potential connectivity under an unexploited and a contemporary exploited reproductive scenario. Results demonstrate that reduced egg production, due to heterogeneous fishing pressure and localized depletion, significantly alters population connectivity patterns as well as the structuring of populations and metapopulations across the species’ range. This strongly suggests that estimates of contemporary demographic rates, together with estimates of reproductive output need to be included in population connectivity studies. The existence of self-sustained metapopulations of queen conch throughout the Wider Caribbean suggests that replenishment through larval dispersal occurs primarily within sub-regional spatial scales, emphasizing the need for regional and local conservation and management measures to build and protect reproductively active populations and nursery habitat across multiple jurisdictions.

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“…This product provides assessments of the presence and amount of Sargassum in the vicinity of a coastline throughout the Intra-American Sea. Thus, SIRs represent a first stage and the first publicly available resource to account for the potential of Sargassum presence in the vicinity of coastal areas and to promote informed decision-making, while more sophisticated coastal models are currently being developed and implemented (Prakash et al 2018). The present implementation of SIR assumes inundation potential based on the FA density value within 50 km of coastal regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring pelagic Sargassum inundation potential for coastal communities

Triñanes

Putman²,

Goñi

et al. 2021

Journal of Operational Oceanography

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Pelagic Sargassum is a buoyant macroalgae that forms rafts at the ocean surface and serves as a biologically rich habitat for hundreds of diverse marine species. Since 2011, massive blooms of Sargassum have occurred in the tropical Atlantic and swept through the western tropical Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. These recurring annual events have caused significant disruptions to coastal communities throughout the region, negatively impacting human health, tourism, fishing, navigation, and nearshore ecosystems. We present here the Sargassum Inundation Report (SIR), a product that uses satellite-based methodology to estimate and predict the future coastal inundation of pelagic Sargassum. Results from one year of SIRs show strong spatiotemporal differences in the potential of coastal inundation across the Intra-American Seas, and provide a comprehensive method for assessing its geographic distribution and temporal variation. Comparisons of SIRs to opportunistically collected photographs indicate a qualitative concordance between satellite and in situ observations. This work highlights the value of satellite observations, basin-wide and seasonal monitoring, and emphasises the need for sub-regional and weekly forecasting. SIRs show considerable promise as a tool that can eventually incorporate improved spatiotemporal resolution Sargassum imagery, ocean circulation, wind, and wave conditions to forecast the movement of Sargassum into coastal areas.

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Development of Sargassum Seaweed Tracking Tools

Cited by 8 publications

References 7 publications

Scaling Up From Regional Case Studies to a Global Harmful Algal Bloom Observing System

Scaling Up From Regional Case Studies to a Global Harmful Algal Bloom Observing System

Exploitation Drives Changes in the Population Connectivity of Queen Conch (Aliger gigas)

Monitoring pelagic Sargassum inundation potential for coastal communities

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