In the Pacific, Global Warming Disrupted The Ecological Dance of Urchins, Sea Stars And Kelp. Otters Help Restore Balance.
When ocean heat waves and a sea star disease devastated kelp forests that are critical to sea life and the California urchin fishing industry, sea otters came to the rescue.
Posted in: In the Media, Marine Biology, Our Research
Along parts of the U.S. Northeast Coast, kelp forests are being replaced by a less productive ecosystem of low-slung, turf-like algae mats that don鈥檛 provide cover for juvenile fish, said聽麻豆传媒在线聽marine ecologist聽, who tracked the changes in a 2020 Scientific Advances聽.
The Northern California kelp study is 鈥減articularly significant in that it demonstrates that marine ecosystems can reach 鈥榯ipping points鈥 at which abrupt or sudden losses of species occur due to compounding climate-change stressors,鈥 Feehan said.
Kelp is not mobile, 鈥渟o they can鈥檛 track climate change the way a fish can,鈥 she said. Some kelp species can only disperse across tens of kilometers, she added, so if they are wiped out across larger areas, recolonization becomes very difficult and slow.
In addition to protecting shorelines by dampening strong waves, Feehan said kelp oxygenates coastal waters and abates ocean acidification by taking carbon dioxide out of the system, storing it and sequestering it in聽 deep water offshore when it dies and sinks.
鈥淎 loss of kelp forests means losing that carbon sequestration,鈥 she said.
Dr. Feehan’s contribution is part of a larger story, read the full piece on