Thierry Tonon at York, Mona Webber at UWI Mona, and Bob Marsh from Southampton with the help of their research teams, have published research on Sargassum harvested around Jamaica in 2020. They found that Sargassum fluitans were dominant in summer, but morphotype abundance may be seasonal. Seaweeds from the south and the north of Jamaica followed a similar migration route across the Tropical Atlantic. Sample processing affects the biochemical composition of pelagic Sargassum biomass, and therefore its potential economic value, including for production of fertilisers and of bioenergy. Sun-drying increased the quantities of phenolic compounds and of mannitol in the biomass, and decreased the fucoxanthin and sugar content. It had only limited effect on the ash, protein, and fatty acid contents.
Read the paper here.