A vast, 8,850 -kilometer-wide, 20-million-ton cluster of Sargassum algae spanned the Atlantic in July 2018.
The news: There have been ever-increasing amounts of the seaweed in the ocean every summer since 2011, with the biggest ever bloom detected last year, according to a paper in Science this week. Although algae islands provide an important ecosystem for marine life, when they become too large they can smother corals and wreak havoc along the coastline. For example, it’s been a major problem for tourism-dependent areas in Mexico, where the seaweed washes up on beaches.
The research: A team at the University of South Florida used data from satellite instruments, which scan the ocean in visible and infrared light. Sargassum algae contains lots of chlorophyll-a, which stands out clearly at infrared wavelengths, in contrast to the water below.
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