SARGASSUM ALGAE – ENVIRONMENT
News: Sargassum algae has vibrio
bacteria
What is in the news?
●
Recently, scientists have
discovered a new vibrio bacteria in the sargassum algae.
Sargassum algae:
●
Sargassum
is a genus of large brown seaweed (a
type of algae) that floats in island-like masses and never attaches to the seafloor.
●
It spends its life on the
ocean’s surface and floats in large
masses.
●
The brown algae Sargassum
is abundant in the ocean. Upon close inspection, it is easy to see the many
leafy appendages, branches, and round, berry-like structures that make up the
plant.
●
These “berries” are
actually gas-filled structures, called
pneumatocysts, which are filled mostly with oxygen.
●
Pneumatocysts
add buoyancy to the plant structure and allow it to
float on the surface.
●
This floating habitat can
provide food, refuge, and breeding grounds for an array of animals such as
fishes, sea turtles, marine birds, crabs, shrimp, and more.
●
Unlike
red tide and blue-green algae, sargassum isn’t harmful.
●
Some animals, like the
sargassum fish (in the frogfish family), live their whole lives only in this
habitat.
●
Sargassum serves as a primary nursery area for a variety of
commercially important fishes such as mahi mahi, jacks, and amberjacks.
●
When Sargassum loses its
buoyancy, it sinks to the seafloor, providing
energy in the form of carbon to fishes and invertebrates in the deep sea,
thus serving as a potentially important addition to deep-sea food web.