Sargassum seaweed—which wreaks annual havoc on coastal communities across the tropical Atlantic—is predicted to creep further north and into Europe in the coming decades.
Sargassum seaweed—which wreaks annual havoc on coastal communities across the tropical Atlantic—is predicted to creep further north and into Europe in the coming decades.
New research, led by the University of Southampton, has also concluded that sargassum is not the carbon sink it was initially believed to be.
Individual sargassum mats, sometimes measuring several kilometers across, have become an annual summer event since 2011, with enormous piles of the seaweed washing up on coasts across the tropical Atlantic, from the Caribbean to West Africa. It is devastating for local communities, threatening fishing, the environment, health (due to the toxic fumes it emits when rotting on beaches), and tourism.
An international team of scientists has assessed how sargassum grows and how prolific it will be in the coming decades.
