Scientists are examining why floating belts of macro-algae known as sargassum have exploded in the Atlantic over the past decade, swamping beaches with a “brown tide” and greatly altering coastal ecosystems in the Caribbean. The growing discharge of pollutants from the Amazon River is now believed to be a major cause, along with climate change and even dust blown in from the Sahara in West Africa.
In this special report, journalists, remote sensing experts and editors from Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and the US worked together to study the latest science on the causes of the algae bloom, investigate the sources of growing pollution in the Amazon basin, research the economic and ecological impacts in the Caribbean and put it all together in a compelling series of stories.
