The fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), enterococci, are used to evaluate the safety of beach waters and beach sands. The increasing quantities of the holopelagic macroalgae Sargassum fluitans and Sargassum natans (referring to herein as “sargassum”) along beaches that face the tropical Atlantic Ocean have motivated field observational studies suggesting that the levels of enterococci at beaches are influenced by the presence of s...

Wrack, composed of organic debris like seagrass and the brown macroalga, Sargassum , accumulates on beaches and when present in overwhelming quantities can impact ecosystem function and public health through microbial contamination, trace element accumulation, and toxic gas emissions. Although studies have started to evaluate the impacts to the microbial quality from different types of wrack, few evaluate the impacts of trace...