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Most of Northern California s kelp forest ecosystem is gone, replaced by widespread urchin barrens
Northern California s kelp forest ecosystem is gone, replaced by widespread urchin barrens.
March 17, 2021
Satellite imagery shows that the area covered by kelp forests off the coast of Northern California has dropped by more than 95%, with just a few small, isolated patches of the bull kelp remaining. Species-rich kelp forests have been replaced by urchin barrens, where purple sea urchins cover a seafloor devoid of kelp and other algae.
A new study led by U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz documents this dramatic shift in the coastal ecosystem and analyzes the events that caused it. The decline was not gradual but rather an abrupt collapse of the kelp forest ecosystem in the aftermath of unusual ocean warming along the U.S. West Coast starting in 2014, part of a series of events that combined to decimate the k
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IMAGE: Satellite images show the dramatic reduction from 2008 to 2019 in the area covered by kelp forests (gold) off the coast of Mendocino and Sonoma Counties in Northern California. view more
Credit: Meredith McPherson
Satellite imagery shows that the area covered by kelp forests off the coast of Northern California has dropped by more than 95 percent, with just a few small, isolated patches of bull kelp remaining. Species-rich kelp forests have been replaced by urchin barrens, where purple sea urchins cover a seafloor devoid of kelp and other algae.
A new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz documents this dramatic shift in the coastal ecosystem and analyzes the events that caused it. This was not a gradual decline, but an abrupt collapse of the kelp forest ecosystem in the aftermath of unusual ocean warming along the West Coast starting in 2014, part of a series of events that combined to decimate the kelp forests.
Scientists warn that swift action is needed to revive the kelp forests that have faced destruction by extreme weather events and a hungry sea urchin population.
Bull kelp (seen here at Pescadero Point) is the dominant species of canopy-forming kelp in Northern California. (Credit: Steve Lonhart/NOAA, MBNMS)
(CN) Northern California’s kelp forests have weathered many harsh conditions in the past, but the recent loss of a keystone species has led to a sharp 95% decline that scientists warn will be vastly difficult to come back from.
Details of the study were published Friday in the journal Communications Biology, where researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz detail the disappearance of the kelp forests and propose swift action to return them to their full health.