Conservation

Kelp forests are an extremely biodiverse ecosystems in coastal cold water areas, thus, protecting the many types of organisms that live in this ecosystem is very important. As with other ecosystems, the removal of different parts of the marine food chain can have a ripple effect throughout kelp forests, this has occurred before with the removal of otters from the kelp forest. Otters created a ripple effect in the ecosystem because otters are the primary predators of sea urchins, which are echinoderms that eat kelp, and without a constant predator the sea urchins grow undeterred and consume entire kelp forests leaving nothing left. The removal of otters was due to mass hunting for otter pelts in the 1800s-1900s, but today there are laws that prevent otter hunting on a large scale. As well as protecting otters, many marine biologists, ichthyologists, and animal enthusiasts are involved in local campaigns to identify and catalogue fish and other organisms in kelp forests that are indicator species of overfishing and other ecosystem altering factors. Kelp forest can remain as one of the most biodiverse coastal ecosystems if humans do their part and control runoff, pollution, and overfishing.

The purple sea urchins are growing in abundance and are detrimental to kelp forest. Since the loss of sea otters in the California region less than 100 years ago sea urchins have had no predators to control their population. Because of this urchin populations can grow unchecked. Their out-of-control grazing create “urchin barrens” devoid of the shelter and biodiversity that kelp ecosystems typically offer. Kelp harbored diverse assemblages of juvenile and adult fishes,but now invertebrates like urchins and shellfish now dominate a simplified habitat.

References

Weiss, Kristen. “Sea otters, kelp and ocean tipping points.” Conservation and Science. 2017. https://futureoftheocean.wordpress.com/tag/kelp-forest/.