New modeling method helped researchers understand why kelp forest returned more slowly in Southern California than in British Columbia.
New modeling method helped researchers understand why kelp forest returned more slowly in Southern California than in British Columbia.
When sea otters were reintroduced along the coastlines of islands in Southern California and British Columbia, researchers saw kelp forests return to areas that were destroyed by sea urchins. But how slow or fast they grew back depended on the location — and until now, scientists didn’t understand why.
New CU Boulder research found sea otters, an important keystone species, play a vital role in kelp forest recovery, but their level of influence depends on what other species they interact with in salty Pacific Ocean waters. The study, published today in PNAS, used decades of observations to create a time series of interactions, like a movie that shows changes in the numbers of the local species, and crucially, the patterns of how they interact through time, to understand how the reintroduction of sea otters helped Pacific Ocean kelp forests recover.
“We always thought keystone species control their ecosystem the same way, regardless of where they are or what else is in the ecosystem,” said Ryan Langendorf, lead author of the paper, Environmental Studies researcher, and former postdoctoral researcher at CIRES. “A more modern view is that they are still very important, but they can have different effects in different places.”
Read more at University of Colorado at Boulder
Photo Credit: christels via Pixabay
