RESEARCH & INNOVATION
done to coral reefs in Barbados by cruise ships, Small turned her attention to the new issue to help improve response planning for Sargassum influxes, particularly in the SargAdapt implementation countries. To accomplish this, maps were created using imagery from Google Earth from 2011 to 2021, while spatial data used information from government institutions and other sites. “The expectation with this data is that it will be used by technical officers as well as environmental managers to help them with the planning responses for Sargassum influxes, and we also expect that the Sargassum maps will help form the basis for a more detailed exposure analysis and for further differentiation of the impacts ... vulnerability assessment of exposed assets and strategic management responses,” she said. Her research was complemented by the investigation undertaken by CERMES Master of Philosophy (MPhil) student, Makeda Corbin , in her examination of Sargassum growth. There are two main species of pelagic Sargassum - Sargassum fluitans and Sargassum natans, and between them there are three common types ( morphotypes). These are S. fluitans III, S. natans I, and S. natans VIII. Corbin’s research sought to assess the growth of these morphotypes
Professor Hazel Oxenford Professor of Fisheries Biology and Management, CERMES The UWI, Cave Hill Campus
D espite these insights, forecasting the influxes remains a major challenge, according to Professor of Fisheries Biology and Management Hazel Oxenford of CERMES, who has been involved in Sargassum research since the algae began arriving on the shores of Caribbean islands. She said it is difficult to predict when it will arrive, and satellite images that are relied on for visual detection have proven unreliable at times. The March 2023 edition of the Sargassum Sub-Regional Outlook Bulletin produced under the SargAdap t project pointed to record amounts of Sargassum in the first quarter of the year, a period that was previously relatively free of the seaweed. Furthermore, it reported that over two times more Sargassum was visible out in the Atlantic last year than a similar period in the previous year. Sargassum was initially found in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. However, a new source area has been found in the North Equatorial Recirculation Region (NERR) located in the Tropical Atlantic. Another CERMES postgraduate student and research assistant with the SargAdapt project, Micaela Small , has been researching Sargassum Inundation Hazard Mapping . Known for her research on the damage being
Makeda Corbin CERMES' MPhil student The UWI, Cave Hill Campus
CHILL NEWS 54
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