Publications des scientifiques de l'IRD

Podlejski W., Berline L., Jouanno Julien, Barrier Nicolas, Lett Christophe. (2024). Drivers of growth and decay of Sargassum in the Tropical Atlantic : a Lagrangian approach. Progress in Oceanography, 229, 103364 [10 p.]. ISSN 0079-6611.

Titre du document
Drivers of growth and decay of Sargassum in the Tropical Atlantic : a Lagrangian approach
Année de publication
2024
Type de document
Article référencé dans le Web of Science WOS:001344463800001
Auteurs
Podlejski W., Berline L., Jouanno Julien, Barrier Nicolas, Lett Christophe
Source
Progress in Oceanography, 2024, 229, 103364 [10 p.] ISSN 0079-6611
The proliferation of Sargassum in the Tropical Atlantic has occurred almost every year since 2011, but a strong variability of biomass is observed among years. Essential knowledge about the drivers of Sargassum growth and decay is still lacking to explain this interannual variability. Benefiting from accurate basin scale Sargassum detections provided by remote sensing, and from physical and biogeochemical ocean simulations, we developed a Lagrangian drift-growth model to simulate Sargassum distribution over the period 2016-2020. The resulting trajectories and biomass time series of Sargassum aggregates were analyzed to highlight the main limiting factors of growth and decay. The nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations are found to be weakly restrictive compared to physical limiting factors, especially the temperature. In particular, the warm waters found off northern Brazil appear to be instrumental in triggering the end of seasonal growth of Sargassum. The timing of the seasonal warming of this region strongly impacts the quantities of Sargassum simulated each year. This suggests that this region should be monitored to anticipate the development of Sargassum and resulting strandings.
Plan de classement
Sciences fondamentales / Techniques d'analyse et de recherche [020] ; Limnologie biologique / Océanographie biologique [034] ; Ecologie, systèmes aquatiques [036]
Description Géographique
ATLANTIQUE ; ZONE TROPICALE
Localisation
Fonds IRD [F B010092018]
Identifiant IRD
fdi:010092018
Contact