Scientists are discovering the largest algae area in the world. They say it could be the "new normal".

With the help of two NASA satellites, scientists have identified what is called the largest piece of algae ever seen. The vast carpet of brown sargasso Seaweed spreads across the Atlantic Ocean – a distance of about 5,500 km – and researchers claim that the alleged bloom could represent the "new normal" for parts of the Atlantic.

"It goes from West Africa to the Atlantic, passing through the center of the sea, towards the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico," said Mengqiu Wang, Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Florida Tampa and co-author of an article describing the algae patch published on July 5 in the journal Science.

The floating mats of seaweed in the Atlantic are not new; Christopher Columbus reported seeing Sargassum as early as the 15th century, say the researchers in their article. And in the open sea, entanglements of algae are a comfortable home for sea turtles, crabs, fish and other marine creatures.

But a carpet of this size – the total mass estimated in 2018 to more than 20 million tonnes – can pose very big problems. Its thick mass stifles the corals and seagrasses, traps the turtles and turns the beaches into a foul mess. And as they decompose, algae attract insects and produce hydrogen sulphide, a gas that gives rotten eggs a sulphurous odor and can cause breathing problems for beach lovers and boaters with asthma. .

This summer, large tufts of sargasso have accumulated on the beaches of Florida and Mexico. Last year, they submerged Caribbean beaches, prompting the Barbados government to declare a national emergency. "It's a good thing in open water, but a bad thing for the coast," Wang said about the algae.

Wang and colleagues at the University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology identified the carpet using 19 years of data from Terra and Aqua satellites orbiting the Earth. Prior to 2011, marine algae were mainly restricted to the Gulf of Mexico and the Sargasso Sea, a well-known Atlantic section separated by ocean currents. But in 2011, blooming spread to the central Atlantic. In 2015, it was spreading across the Atlantic.

Using data on ocean conditions from the same period, scientists have tentatively established a link between plot growth and increasing levels of nutrients in the seawater, including amounts of water. 39, nitrogen and phosphorus associated with deforestation and the increasing use of fertilizer in Brazil. The chemicals infiltrated the Amazon River, which then dumped them into the Atlantic.

In May, loggers fell trees on a record area of ​​739 square kilometers (more than 285 square miles) of previously forested land in Brazil, the Guardian reported. "When people kill more trees, when rainfall occurs, more nutrients can be washed into the river," said Wang. "And when the rain falls on the ground, fertilizers can potentially seep into the water itself."

Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, a biologist at the University of Miami, said that there could be other explanations for the growth of the algae field. "The controversy is, is all sargasso just drift [from the Sargasso Sea], or are there more? She said, adding that more research would be needed to prove the link between the influx of nutrients and the sargasso Flowering.

Wang agreed that we needed to learn more about sargasso thrust. She added that she would like to study the effects of ocean temperature and salinity on seasonal algal blooms. "Only when we have a better understanding of these issues can we better understand the phenomenon of poverty. sargasso growth, "she said.

In the meantime, the sargasso Flowering can be there for the long term. "If these processes are not stopped," said Wang about deforestation and the use of fertilizer, "this kind of situation will probably continue. This phenomenon could be a new normality. "

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