Michael Langhans News Today

It was the appearance of sea urchins from their hiding spots, not an increase in the urchin population, which caused a spectacular outbreak of kelp-eating sea urchins along California’s Central Coast in 2014 that resulted in a large decline in the region’s kelp forests.

5:00 California’s underwater kelp forests are in trouble. A combination of climate change and hungry purple sea urchins have decimated these vital forests. But the Monterey Peninsula has a kelp forest guardian — sea otters. New research out of the University of California, Santa Cruz is highlighting their role. Josh Smith has been researching how sea otters are defending Monterey Bay’s kelp forest since 2015. He co-authored a paper that was published March 8 in Proceedings of the National...

Kelp forests off the coast of California have declined dramatically since 2014, with large areas being replaced by a carpet of sea urchins. However, there are often healthy patches of forest next door – and a study from the University of California, Santa Cruz has shown that it’s sea otters’ green paws that help them thrive. Advertisement Sea otters are a ‘keystone species’: they play a disproportionately important role in their ecosystem, influencing the populations of the plants and...