Volume 69
Biogeographic and Temporal Changes in Mobile Fauna Community on Pelagic Sargassum in the Caribbean Sea, 2015 – 2016
Authors
Taylor, M.I., A.N.S. Siuda, D. Goodwin, G. Huston, and J.M. Schell Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2016
Pages: 200 - 202
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty eigth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Grand Cayman
Country: Cayman Islands
Abstract
Sargassum macroalgae is found in warm seas around the world. Two unique species of entirely pelagic Sargassum are found in the Sargasso and Caribbean Seas: Sargassum fluitans III (SfIII) and S. natans, with the latter occurring in two morphological forms known as S. natans I and S. natans VIII (SnVIII; Parr, 1939). SfIII is common in the northern Sargasso Sea, often drifting south into waters near the Greater Antilles. S. natans I dominates in the Sargasso Sea and is rarely observed in the Caribbean. SnVIII, which may be less ecologically important than SfIII, is believed to have an eastern Tropical Atlantic source, though has recently drifted outside its typical range and into the Caribbean Sea causing beach inundation events (Schell et al. 2015a).