A large-scale, long-term experiment on kelp forests off Southern California brings new insight to how the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems could be impacted over time as a changing climate potentially increases the frequency of ocean storms.
A large-scale, long-term experiment on kelp forests off Southern California brings new insight to how the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems could be impacted over time as a changing climate potentially increases the frequency of ocean storms.
Researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of California, Santa Barbara experimentally mimicked the loss of undersea giant kelp forests at four locations off the coast of Santa Barbara and found that increasing storm frequency – as predicted by some climate change models – could dramatically alter the ratios and types of sea life that live along the California coastline.
“We found that the frequency of disturbance was the most important factor influencing kelp forest biodiversity, whereas the severity of disturbance in a given year played a minor role,” said lead researcher Max Castorani, a professor of environmental sciences at UVA.
The study appears online Oct. 30 in the journal Ecology, and comes as scientists are trying to anticipate the ecological consequences of a changing climate. It is among the few long-term experiments to look into how kelp forests, which are major coastal marine habitats throughout the world, could change over time if climate model predictions play out in nature as many scientists expect. Some climate forecasts indicate that storm frequency and severity will increase, as already is happening in some regions.
Read more at University of Virginia
Image: Kelp forests provide habitat for a diverse array of sea life, from finfish and shellfish to corals and sponges. Such biodiversity could change if ocean storms become more frequent. (Credit: University of Virginia/University of California, Santa Barbara)
