Sargassum
Sargassum (Sargassum natans) is a golden-brown seaweed that floats freely on the open ocean, giving its name to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. Its floating mats shelter a unique community of animals.
Sargassum (Sargassum natans) is a golden-brown seaweed that floats freely on the open ocean, giving its name to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. Its floating mats shelter a unique community of animals.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Sargassum in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Diaphoretickes lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
A Floating Forest
Gas-filled bladders keep the weed at the surface. Mats are home to crabs, shrimp, fishes and sea turtle hatchlings, many found nowhere else. European and American eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea.
The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt
Since 2011, huge blooms of Sargassum have formed across the tropical Atlantic, washing up in the Caribbean and West Africa in rotting piles that harm tourism and coastal ecosystems. Nutrient inputs and warming are possible causes. See Eutrophication.
Cousins
Sargassum is related to bladderwrack and other fucoids. See Bladderwrack.
Sargassum at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Sargassum natans |
| Kingdom | Chromista |
| Phylum | Heterokontophyta |
| Class | Phaeophyceae |
| Order | Fucales |
| Family | Sargassaceae |
| Field Guide group | Diaphoretickes: Plants & Algae |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Bushy golden mats kept afloat by round berry-like air bladders; never attaches to the seafloor and forms the floating Sargasso Sea. |
| Group | Brown algae (Fucales) |
| Lifestyle | Floating at sea |
See Also
- Bladderwrack — a related brown alga
- Eutrophication — nutrients and blooms