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Micropollutant content of Sargassum drifted ashore: arsenic and chlordecone threat assessment and management recommendations for the Caribbean

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Abstract

Massive Sargassum beachings occurred since 2011 on Caribbean shores. Sargassum inundation events currently involve two species, namely S. fluitans and S. natans circulating and blooming along the North Atlantic subtropical gyre and in the entire Caribbean region up to the Gulf of Mexico. Like other brown seaweeds, Sargassum have been shown to bioaccumulate a large number of heavy metals, alongside with some organic compounds including the contamination by historical chlordecone pollution in French West Indies (FWI), an insecticide used against the banana’s weevil Cosmopolites sordidus. The present study reports, during two successive years, the concentration levels of heavy metals including arsenic in Martinique and Guadeloupe (FWI). We found that Sargassum can also accumulate a high concentration of chlordecone. Sargassum contamination by chlordecone is observed in areas close to contaminated river mouth but can be partly due to chlordecone desorption when secondary drifted on chlordecone-free shore. Our results further demonstrate that algae bleaching raises a number of questions about inorganic and organic pollutant (i) bioaccumulation, at sea for arsenic and close to river plumes for chlordecone, (ii) transport, and (iii) dissemination, depending the shoreline and the speciation for arsenic and/or metabolization for both.

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Acknowledgements

Authors want to thank the Celia Northam (SIMILITUDE) for English editing. Authors want to thank also Pascal-Jean Lopez and Vincent Hervé for their contribution to conception, sampling analysis of results, and writing of the present article.

Funding

French Energy and Environment Agency (ADEME) granted the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département des Sciences et Technologies, Centre Universitaire de Formation et de Recherche de Mayotte, RN3, BP53, 97660, Mayotte, Dembeni, France

    Damien A. Devault

  2. Unité Biologie des organismes et écosystèmes aquatiques (BOREA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Université, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université de Caen Normandie, Université des Antilles, 43 rue Cuvier, 75005, Paris, France

    Damien A. Devault, Josie Lambourdière, Laëtitia Dupuy & Franck Dolique

  3. La Drôme Laboratoire, 37 avenue de Lautagne, 118, Valence, BP, France

    Félix Massat

  4. ADEME, Zone de Manhity Four à chaux Sud Immeuble Exodom LE, 97232, Le Lamentin, Martinique, France

    Clio Maridakis

  5. EA 929 AIHP-Geode Campus Universitaire de Schœlcher, 97275, Schœlcher, Martinique, France

    Anne Péné-Annette

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  1. Damien A. Devault
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Contributions

DAD performed the conception, preparation, sampling, experiment, the analysis of results, and the writing of the present article. FM contributed to the preparation, experiment, analysis, and writing. CM and FD contributed to the conception and sampling. JL, LD, and APA contributed to sampling.

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Correspondence to Damien A. Devault.

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Appendix 1. Field contamination: Sargassum content (average, n = 3)

Appendix 1. Field contamination: Sargassum content (average, n = 3)

Table 5

Table 5 Campaign 1, t for Sargassum piles
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Table 6

Table 6 Campaign 2
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Table 7

Table 7 Detail of campaign 2 in Martinique. (1) Grounded and at least partly dried and browned, being drifted to shore but not yet grounded. (2) Recently grounded, i.e., still wet. (3) Close to be grounded, in the beating of the waves. (4) Still in seawater
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Devault, D.A., Massat, F., Lambourdière, J. et al. Micropollutant content of Sargassum drifted ashore: arsenic and chlordecone threat assessment and management recommendations for the Caribbean. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 66315–66334 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20300-3

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