seaweed – envirobites

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Seaweeds Against Climate Change: How Algae Provide Us with Ecosystem Services

June 1, 2023June 23, 2023 Andrea Valcarcel 0 Comments algae, climate resiliency, ecosystem services, marine remediation, seaweed

If you’ve ever been near the ocean, chances are you’ve had an involuntary encounter with seaweed. It’s slimy. It’s smelly. It’s just overall not pleasant—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful for both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Here we’ll review some of the ecosystem services they provide so we can start looking past the inconvenience they represent and start appreciating them as the valuable organisms they are.

Climate Ecosystems

Talk Turtle to Me: How Algae Could Drive Sea Turtle Populations to Extinction

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022 Andrea Valcarcel 0 Comments caribbean, Climate Change, population ecology, Sargassum, sea turtles, seaweed, sex determination, temperature, tropical ecosystems, turtles

Rising ocean temperatures have been increasing the size of algal blooms, with Sargassum being one of the most prominent algae species affecting coastlines in the Caribbean. When beached, Sargassum can only be removed from shores through human intervention, which is both costly and time-consuming. These algal outbreaks are ending up on beaches where sea turtles are known to nest, affecting their biology and survivability. Will beached Sargassum on Caribbean shores affect sea turtle populations irreversibly, or will we find a more effective way of dealing with the changing algal populations?