Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados SC (CIMAV), Av. Miguel de Cervantes 120. Complejo Industrial Chihuahua, C.P. 31136, Chihuahua, CHIH, Mexico.
Tecnológico de Chetumal, Av. Insurgentes 330, 17 de octubre, C.P. 77013, Chetumal, Q.R, Mexico.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Jul;27(20):25794-25800. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-08969-w. Epub 2020 Apr 30.
Pelagic Sargassum is considered an ecological plague that is causing adverse economic impacts to the tourist and fishing industries in the Caribbean. However, its proliferation might be playing an important role to reduce global warming, as it removes a high content of CO from the atmosphere and transforms it into calcium carbonate, in its calcite phase, producing sediment after it dies. We quantified the amount of calcite in Sargassum samples collected from the Mexican Caribbean coast in 2019. Samples were divided into three parts: vesicles, thallus, and leaves. In each part, the amount of carbon, oxygen, and calcium was determined by means of X-ray energy dispersion to confirm the existence of a calcite crystalline phase. Imaging methodologies and IR spectroscopy complemented the structural studies. The thermogravimetric analysis determined that approximately 5% of the CO captured by the Sargassum was converted into calcite. Thus, by extrapolation, the Atlantic Sargasso Belt retained approximately 19.3 million tons of CO from 2011 to 2019.
大洋马尾藻被认为是一种生态灾难,它给加勒比地区的旅游业和渔业带来了不利的经济影响。然而,它的大量繁殖可能在减少全球变暖方面发挥了重要作用,因为它从大气中去除了大量的 CO,并将其转化为碳酸钙,在方解石相中,在其死亡后产生沉积物。我们量化了 2019 年从墨西哥加勒比海岸采集的马尾藻样本中的方解石含量。样本分为三部分:囊泡、藻体和叶片。在每个部分中,通过 X 射线能量色散来确定碳、氧和钙的含量,以确认存在方解石结晶相。成像方法和红外光谱补充了结构研究。热重分析确定,马尾藻捕获的大约 5%的 CO 被转化为方解石。因此,通过外推法,2011 年至 2019 年期间,大西洋马尾藻带保留了大约 1930 万吨 CO。