"Kelp forests don’t look like much on the outside, but if you look deeper, they’re teeming with life. Unfortunately, these magnificent underwater forests are in danger. They need saving, because they play a vital part in our world."--Lottie Mills, 6th grade
Kelp forests don’t look like much on the outside, but if you look deeper, they’re teeming with life. Unfortunately, these magnificent underwater forests are in danger. They need saving, because they play a vital part in our world.
Kelp forests are key ecosystems that house hundreds of different species, like fish, sea urchins, sea otters, and crustaceans like crabs and lobsters. These forests not only house animals, but also capture CO2, a greenhouse gas partially responsible for climate change. According to a One Earth article by Lindsey Jean Schueman, “...kelp forests that are guarded by sea otters can sequester up to 12 times more carbon from the environment.” This means that kelp forests are important not only to the animals it houses, but also to the action against climate change.
Unfortunately, kelp forests are becoming endangered, largely thanks to one creature – the purple sea urchin. Purple sea urchins are a type of sea urchin, about three inches across that live in kelp beds on the west coast of North America. Purple sea urchin’s natural predators are sea otters and sunflower sea stars, both of which have kept their population in check. Lately, however, sea otters and sunflower sea stars have become scarce, with both becoming endangered. Because of this, the purple sea urchin population is booming, and that means they need more kelp. In some places, purple sea urchins have eaten all the kelp, creating what are called sea urchin barrens.
Kelp forests are key ecosystems that house hundreds of different species, like fish, sea urchins, sea otters, and crustaceans like crabs and lobsters. These forests not only house animals, but also capture CO2, a greenhouse gas partially responsible for climate change. According to a One Earth article by Lindsey Jean Schueman, “...kelp forests that are guarded by sea otters can sequester up to 12 times more carbon from the environment.” This means that kelp forests are important not only to the animals it houses, but also to the action against climate change.
Unfortunately, kelp forests are becoming endangered, largely thanks to one creature – the purple sea urchin. Purple sea urchins are a type of sea urchin, about three inches across that live in kelp beds on the west coast of North America. Purple sea urchin’s natural predators are sea otters and sunflower sea stars, both of which have kept their population in check. Lately, however, sea otters and sunflower sea stars have become scarce, with both becoming endangered. Because of this, the purple sea urchin population is booming, and that means they need more kelp. In some places, purple sea urchins have eaten all the kelp, creating what are called sea urchin barrens.
Sea otters and sunflower sea stars are endangered. Sunflower sea stars especially. This is due to an outbreak of a disease fatal to sea stars called sea star wasting disease that happened in 2012/2013, causing sea stars to lose their arms, made worse by its highly contagious nature. “It killed approximately 99% of sunflower stars along our coastline and had similar effects on many other sea stars in our coastal waters,” says Riah Evin, the Steinhart Aquarium Senior Biologist. Evin and the other biologists at Cal Academy of Sciences are working to bring the sunflower sea stars back by spawning and raising thousands of baby sea stars.
When asked about how the project is going so far, Evin responded, “We have raised over 100 sunflower stars and The California Academy of Sciences. Raising those animals taught us an incredible amount about their biology and genetics, but we still have a lot to learn. We are continuing to study sunflower star genetics to ensure that any stars released into the wild are genetically diverse and prepared to survive in the ocean. We hope to someday have a healthy, diverse, and tough population of sunflower stars that we can release into ecosystems where they are missing.”
It may seem like you can’t do anything to help the kelp right now, as you don’t have fancy equipment or the ability to raise more sunflower sea stars or otters, but that’s not true! There are plenty of ways you can help the kelp, inside your own house! The biggest way you can help is by reducing your own carbon footprint. This will help prevent climate change and the warming oceans, because kelp can only survive in cold water. This means that climate change is one of kelp forest’s biggest threats, and you can help stop it. Some ways you can do this are to drive less, as car emissions are producers of carbon. You can also use less plastic, the manufacturing of plastic is also a big contributor of carbon. Plastic also kills so many marine animals, trapping them and choking them, or, when animals eat it, mistaking it for food, it can make them toxic and sick. For more info on what you can do to help the kelp, visit 5 ways you can help the kelp!
If everyone on earth reduced their carbon footprint just a little, it would be so much easier to bring back the kelp, bringing the home of so many creatures back from the brink of extinction.
When asked about how the project is going so far, Evin responded, “We have raised over 100 sunflower stars and The California Academy of Sciences. Raising those animals taught us an incredible amount about their biology and genetics, but we still have a lot to learn. We are continuing to study sunflower star genetics to ensure that any stars released into the wild are genetically diverse and prepared to survive in the ocean. We hope to someday have a healthy, diverse, and tough population of sunflower stars that we can release into ecosystems where they are missing.”
It may seem like you can’t do anything to help the kelp right now, as you don’t have fancy equipment or the ability to raise more sunflower sea stars or otters, but that’s not true! There are plenty of ways you can help the kelp, inside your own house! The biggest way you can help is by reducing your own carbon footprint. This will help prevent climate change and the warming oceans, because kelp can only survive in cold water. This means that climate change is one of kelp forest’s biggest threats, and you can help stop it. Some ways you can do this are to drive less, as car emissions are producers of carbon. You can also use less plastic, the manufacturing of plastic is also a big contributor of carbon. Plastic also kills so many marine animals, trapping them and choking them, or, when animals eat it, mistaking it for food, it can make them toxic and sick. For more info on what you can do to help the kelp, visit 5 ways you can help the kelp!
If everyone on earth reduced their carbon footprint just a little, it would be so much easier to bring back the kelp, bringing the home of so many creatures back from the brink of extinction.
