A long-term study by UCSB scientists and colleagues demonstrates that failing kelp forests can be rescued by nearby neighbors.
After big winter storms, clumps of kelp forests often wash ashore along the Southern California coast. Contrary to the devastation these massive piles of seaweed might indicate, new research suggests the kelp may rebound pretty quickly, with help from neighboring beds.
A long-term study by UCSB scientists and colleagues demonstrates that failing kelp forests can be rescued by nearby neighbors.
After big winter storms, clumps of kelp forests often wash ashore along the Southern California coast. Contrary to the devastation these massive piles of seaweed might indicate, new research suggests the kelp may rebound pretty quickly, with help from neighboring beds.
The study, conducted by UC Santa Barbara scientists and colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, UCLA and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, found that kelp forests can bounce back from destructive storms when the forests are in reasonably close proximity to healthy beds. In much the same way that the wind scatters plant seeds over the land, ocean currents carry trillions of microscopic spores from one kelp forest to another, where they create life for ailing populations. The marine scientists’ findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“Historically, researchers thought that kelp forest resilience depended on only the local environment,” explained lead author Max Castorani, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute. “However, that turned out to be wrong, as we showed that kelp forests from miles away influence whether a local kelp forest persists or goes extinct. Declining kelp forests can be rescued or recolonized by neighboring populations, so the proximity among forests is very important.”
For example, kelp forests off the coast of Santa Barbara are linked to neighboring beds near Montecito and Goleta Beach but also to those farther away — as far south as Carpinteria and as far north as Isla Vista and the Gaviota coast.
Read more at UC Santa Barbara
Photo credit: Melissa Ward
