Pelagic Sargassum events in Jamaica: Provenance, morphotype abundance, and influence of sample processing on biochemical composition of the biomass.

Pelagic Sargassum species have been known for centuries in the Sargasso Sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. In 2011, a new area concentrating high biomass of these brown algae started developing in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean. Since then, massive and recurrent Sargassum influxes have been reported in the Caribbean and off the coast of Western Africa.