October 24, 2023 • 10 mins
Remember last spring's sargassum bloom that threatened Florida's east coast? The University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, NOAA and other agencies are sharing a three million dollar grant to develop a way to forecast where sargassum blooms are going. We speak with USF researcher and oceanographer Brian Barnes, who's leading the effort.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here beyond the News.Remember that huge blob of seaweed that swept
Florida beaches this past spring. USF'sCollege of Marine Science is getting part of
a five year grant worth more thanthree million dollars to develop a way to
forecast future blooms and keep them fromplaguing coastal communities in Florida and elsewhere.
(00:21):
The university is collaborating with Florida AtlanticUniversity, NOAH, and other agencies to
set this up. Brian Barnes isan assistant research professor and physical oceanographer at
USF and the main investigator for thisproject. And Brian Barnes, we welcome
you to Beyond the News. Thanksso much, happy to be with you
now. Everybody thinks back to thatsargassem bloom that impacted Florida's East coast and
(00:46):
a lot of other areas this pastspring. It was huge. Are these
blooms getting bigger? Are they morelikely to impact coastal communities? And if
so, what's driving that? Yeah, so the ballooms. Before twenty eleven
or so, there was no suchthing as the large sargassum blooms in this
(01:07):
region, and since then up tolast year, the blooms of getting have
been getting larger and larger in size. There are some years that are are
buck that trend a little bit,and twenty twenty three actually ended up not
being as massive during the peak seasonof June and July as had been the
(01:29):
case in previous years. But overall, yes, the trend is that these
guys are getting bigger and bigger overthe last decade or so. And what's
driving that? Why are they gettingbigger? Yeah, I mean, the
simplest answer I can give you isthat just like any plant, if you
give it the right thing, thethings it needs to grow, if you
(01:52):
give it the light, the temperature, and nutrients, it will grow.
And so the areas that this sargassumblue is growing and thriving have the right
light environment, have the right temperature, and the nutrients. The fertilizer essentially
is coming from major river outfloaws thatare in the region. So the Orinoca
(02:14):
River, the Amazon River, theCongo River, and even the Mississippi River,
all of them are feeding dispersing nutrientsinto the waters that this macro alga
then takes up and uses to fuelthese large blooms. Now what you're aspiring
to do is set up a systemthat would be able to forecast these large
(02:36):
blooms and their impact on potentially oncoastal communities. Now, I assume that's
something similar to the way that weatherforecasters pinpoint where they expect a hurricane to
make landfall. How do you forecasta bloom? What's your input? What's
your information to figure out where abig bloom is going to form and where
(02:58):
it's going to go. Yeah,so this project actually is taking some of
the lessons we've learned and some ofthe tools we've developed to identify sargasm in
satellite imagery. A lot of theinput, as you state it, is
satellite imagery, so like a weathersatellite and even imagery or satellites that provide
(03:22):
finer scale resolution than the traditional weathersatellites. So the input here is a
satellite that's looking down on a coastalregion. It can see physically see the
sargassum as interpreted from the through somemachine learning or artificial intelligence routines that we
(03:44):
have developed. So you identify sargasmin some satellite imagery, and then we
couple it with circulation models. Sojust like you have weather you know,
forecasts that show where the wind's goingto go, the surface currents, which
is this is a flowing macro algae, so it's right at the surface.
It's impacted by the winds and bywhere the surface water is moving. So
(04:08):
you identify sargasm in you know whereit is in the ocean and how much.
And you couple that with models,coastal circulation models to identify at really
fine scale where an individual sargasm patchwill will make landfall and where it will
have the most or the greatest impact. So instead of just saying there's a
(04:30):
bloom out there in the Atlantic Ocean, you'll be able to say where it's
likely to make a landfall, asit were, right the bloom the Atlantic
Ocean, what we call the GreatAtlantic Sargassem Belt isn't it's not necessarily the
analogy that's often uses. It's ablob. It's not a blob. It's
(04:54):
a conglomeration of many, many,you know, thousands, millions of blobs.
Uh. And these can be assmall as a you know, a
handful, or up to as largeas you know, maybe a kilometer square.
So these identifying the large patches.You know, once you once you
zoom in from these course scale youknow, weather satellite scale satellite data uh
(05:19):
and into these more fine scale maybeon the order of a couple of meters.
That's when you can distinguish between uh, you know, a small patch
that's not going to be a problem, and a large patch that we need
to track and identify where it's goingbecause it's going to have negative downstream consequences.
This sounds like it would have alot of benefit for the average Florida
(05:41):
resident, especially if they go tothe beach. What's the practical impact going
to be of having a system likethis in place? Right? So that's
actually a key component of this ofthis award of this project is to have
direct tie in with a lot ofthis downstream states holders people not just those
who are charged with remediating sargasms solike doing actual physical cleanup, but other
(06:08):
stakeholders. And a very salient exampleis there are the US Virgin Islands.
Two years back, there was somuch sargassum that in a particular area that
the inflow for their water desalination plantwas clopped and that impacted the drinking supply
(06:29):
for the entire island. So stakeholdersthroughout the throughout the range from governments to
resource managers, to industry and beyondare paired with US or partnered with us
on this to make sure that theproducts that we develop are useful to them
(06:50):
and are delivered in a format.So, for example, you might if
you had a three day warning ofa sargas indation in a particular area,
you can stage your excavator, yourdump trucks and things to try and get
that sargassum out as quickly as possible. Or you could potentially place some you
(07:12):
know, not permanent barrier, buta barrier to prevent a particular sargassum patch
from impacting a particularly sensitive area.Now, once you're able to work this
out and create a successful system forforecasting sargassum, will these methods be adaptable
to other forms of algae blooms suchas red tide. Yeah, we have
(07:36):
the pieces that we're talking about here. We already have some of those in
play. For instance, for redtide on the West Florida Shelf. So
USF and a lot of the samepartners that are in this project. I
have partnered with Florida Fish and WildlifeConservation Commission and in this partnership. You
(08:01):
have FWC collects water. We usethe satellite data to essentially look at the
water body and try and fill inthe gaps between f fwc's discrete water samples,
and then we also have the coupledmodeling of where the individual parcels of
water are going and that kind offeedback loop that that effort that involves all
(08:28):
these different groups is really the mirrorswhat we're hoping to do here, but
just on a larger scale, becausewe're not just dealing with the West Florida
sales. We're dealing with the FloridaKeys, the US Virgin Islands, and
Puerto Rico, So a large multiregional effort here. Do you have a
(08:48):
timetable? How long do you thinkit will take to make this system of
reality? Yeah, so the projectis for five years, but we're helped
to be kind of up and runningwith a beta type version much sooner than
that, and this will be stagedwe have a little bit more experience or
(09:09):
our products are a little bit moredeveloped already within the Florida Keys region,
so that'll be our first implementation withina few years, and then we will
open up to the broader the broaderUS Caribbean subsequent to that. But yeah,
these products that that I'm describing,the higher resolution satellite data products,
(09:31):
the coastal model, the circulation modelsand so forth, those are already in
place. The challenge here is gettingthem to be make sure that we can
trust them, and getting them tobe made available. Satellite data overpass.
We process the data and we provideit autonomously and in a timeframe that's fast
(09:58):
enough to be used to the downstreamcollaborators, something that'll be good to have.
Will continue to watch for developments onthis. Brian Barnes an Assistant Research
professor and physical oceanographer at the Universityof South Florida, main investigator for a
five year project to develop a systemto actually forecasts are gassom blooms, where
(10:22):
they're going to end up, whichbeaches, and help those communities deal with
them. Brian Barnes, thank youvery much for joining us on Beyond the
News, No problem, Thank youso much,
Gordon Bird here beyond the News.Remember that huge blob of seaweed that swept
Florida beaches this past spring. USF'sCollege of Marine Science is getting part of
a five year grant worth more thanthree million dollars to develop a way to
forecast future blooms and keep them fromplaguing coastal communities in Florida and elsewhere.
(00:21):
The university is collaborating with Florida AtlanticUniversity, NOAH, and other agencies to
set this up. Brian Barnes isan assistant research professor and physical oceanographer at
USF and the main investigator for thisproject. And Brian Barnes, we welcome
you to Beyond the News. Thanksso much, happy to be with you
now. Everybody thinks back to thatsargassem bloom that impacted Florida's East coast and
(00:46):
a lot of other areas this pastspring. It was huge. Are these
blooms getting bigger? Are they morelikely to impact coastal communities? And if
so, what's driving that? Yeah, so the ballooms. Before twenty eleven
or so, there was no suchthing as the large sargassum blooms in this
(01:07):
region, and since then up tolast year, the blooms of getting have
been getting larger and larger in size. There are some years that are are
buck that trend a little bit,and twenty twenty three actually ended up not
being as massive during the peak seasonof June and July as had been the
(01:29):
case in previous years. But overall, yes, the trend is that these
guys are getting bigger and bigger overthe last decade or so. And what's
driving that? Why are they gettingbigger? Yeah, I mean, the
simplest answer I can give you isthat just like any plant, if you
give it the right thing, thethings it needs to grow, if you
(01:52):
give it the light, the temperature, and nutrients, it will grow.
And so the areas that this sargassumblue is growing and thriving have the right
light environment, have the right temperature, and the nutrients. The fertilizer essentially
is coming from major river outfloaws thatare in the region. So the Orinoca
(02:14):
River, the Amazon River, theCongo River, and even the Mississippi River,
all of them are feeding dispersing nutrientsinto the waters that this macro alga
then takes up and uses to fuelthese large blooms. Now what you're aspiring
to do is set up a systemthat would be able to forecast these large
(02:36):
blooms and their impact on potentially oncoastal communities. Now, I assume that's
something similar to the way that weatherforecasters pinpoint where they expect a hurricane to
make landfall. How do you forecasta bloom? What's your input? What's
your information to figure out where abig bloom is going to form and where
(02:58):
it's going to go. Yeah,so this project actually is taking some of
the lessons we've learned and some ofthe tools we've developed to identify sargasm in
satellite imagery. A lot of theinput, as you state it, is
satellite imagery, so like a weathersatellite and even imagery or satellites that provide
(03:22):
finer scale resolution than the traditional weathersatellites. So the input here is a
satellite that's looking down on a coastalregion. It can see physically see the
sargassum as interpreted from the through somemachine learning or artificial intelligence routines that we
(03:44):
have developed. So you identify sargasmin some satellite imagery, and then we
couple it with circulation models. Sojust like you have weather you know,
forecasts that show where the wind's goingto go, the surface currents, which
is this is a flowing macro algae, so it's right at the surface.
It's impacted by the winds and bywhere the surface water is moving. So
(04:08):
you identify sargasm in you know whereit is in the ocean and how much.
And you couple that with models,coastal circulation models to identify at really
fine scale where an individual sargasm patchwill will make landfall and where it will
have the most or the greatest impact. So instead of just saying there's a
(04:30):
bloom out there in the Atlantic Ocean, you'll be able to say where it's
likely to make a landfall, asit were, right the bloom the Atlantic
Ocean, what we call the GreatAtlantic Sargassem Belt isn't it's not necessarily the
analogy that's often uses. It's ablob. It's not a blob. It's
(04:54):
a conglomeration of many, many,you know, thousands, millions of blobs.
Uh. And these can be assmall as a you know, a
handful, or up to as largeas you know, maybe a kilometer square.
So these identifying the large patches.You know, once you once you
zoom in from these course scale youknow, weather satellite scale satellite data uh
(05:19):
and into these more fine scale maybeon the order of a couple of meters.
That's when you can distinguish between uh, you know, a small patch
that's not going to be a problem, and a large patch that we need
to track and identify where it's goingbecause it's going to have negative downstream consequences.
This sounds like it would have alot of benefit for the average Florida
(05:41):
resident, especially if they go tothe beach. What's the practical impact going
to be of having a system likethis in place? Right? So that's
actually a key component of this ofthis award of this project is to have
direct tie in with a lot ofthis downstream states holders people not just those
who are charged with remediating sargasms solike doing actual physical cleanup, but other
(06:08):
stakeholders. And a very salient exampleis there are the US Virgin Islands.
Two years back, there was somuch sargassum that in a particular area that
the inflow for their water desalination plantwas clopped and that impacted the drinking supply
(06:29):
for the entire island. So stakeholdersthroughout the throughout the range from governments to
resource managers, to industry and beyondare paired with US or partnered with us
on this to make sure that theproducts that we develop are useful to them
(06:50):
and are delivered in a format.So, for example, you might if
you had a three day warning ofa sargas indation in a particular area,
you can stage your excavator, yourdump trucks and things to try and get
that sargassum out as quickly as possible. Or you could potentially place some you
(07:12):
know, not permanent barrier, buta barrier to prevent a particular sargassum patch
from impacting a particularly sensitive area.Now, once you're able to work this
out and create a successful system forforecasting sargassum, will these methods be adaptable
to other forms of algae blooms suchas red tide. Yeah, we have
(07:36):
the pieces that we're talking about here. We already have some of those in
play. For instance, for redtide on the West Florida Shelf. So
USF and a lot of the samepartners that are in this project. I
have partnered with Florida Fish and WildlifeConservation Commission and in this partnership. You
(08:01):
have FWC collects water. We usethe satellite data to essentially look at the
water body and try and fill inthe gaps between f fwc's discrete water samples,
and then we also have the coupledmodeling of where the individual parcels of
water are going and that kind offeedback loop that that effort that involves all
(08:28):
these different groups is really the mirrorswhat we're hoping to do here, but
just on a larger scale, becausewe're not just dealing with the West Florida
sales. We're dealing with the FloridaKeys, the US Virgin Islands, and
Puerto Rico, So a large multiregional effort here. Do you have a
(08:48):
timetable? How long do you thinkit will take to make this system of
reality? Yeah, so the projectis for five years, but we're helped
to be kind of up and runningwith a beta type version much sooner than
that, and this will be stagedwe have a little bit more experience or
(09:09):
our products are a little bit moredeveloped already within the Florida Keys region,
so that'll be our first implementation withina few years, and then we will
open up to the broader the broaderUS Caribbean subsequent to that. But yeah,
these products that that I'm describing,the higher resolution satellite data products,
(09:31):
the coastal model, the circulation modelsand so forth, those are already in
place. The challenge here is gettingthem to be make sure that we can
trust them, and getting them tobe made available. Satellite data overpass.
We process the data and we provideit autonomously and in a timeframe that's fast
(09:58):
enough to be used to the downstreamcollaborators, something that'll be good to have.
Will continue to watch for developments onthis. Brian Barnes an Assistant Research
professor and physical oceanographer at the Universityof South Florida, main investigator for a
five year project to develop a systemto actually forecasts are gassom blooms, where
(10:22):
they're going to end up, whichbeaches, and help those communities deal with
them. Brian Barnes, thank youvery much for joining us on Beyond the
News, No problem, Thank youso much,
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