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Where the bottom is rocky and affords places for it to anchor, giant kelp forms extensive kelp beds with large "floating canopies". [8] When present in large numbers, giant kelp forms kelp forests that are home to many marine species that depend upon the kelp directly for food and shelter, or indirectly as a hunting ground for prey. Both the ...
Kelletia kelletii, common name Kellet's whelk, is a species of large sea snail, a whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the whelk family Austrosiphonidae. [3] [4] [5] [6]Kelletia kelletii is a large scavenger [5] [7] and predatory sea snail commonly found in subtidal kelp forests, rocky reefs, and cobble-sand interfaces at depths ranging from 2 to 70 m from Isla Asunción, Baja California ...
More commonly Norrisia norrisii is found in the shallow subtidal, particularly in kelp forests. On Santa Catalina Island off the coast of southern California, Norrisia norrisii is commonly seen crawling up and down stipes of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera. [9] [12]
Sea urchins like this purple sea urchin can damage kelp forests by chewing through kelp holdfasts The sea otter is an important predator of sea urchins The jeweled top snail Calliostoma annulatum grazing on a blade of giant kelp. Classic studies in kelp forest ecology have largely focused on trophic interactions (the relationships between ...
For example, mechanical dredging of kelp destroys the resource and dependent fisheries. Other forces also threaten some seaweed ecosystems; for example, a wasting disease in predators of purple urchins has led to an urchin population surge which has destroyed large kelp forest regions off the coast of California. [4]
Kelp forests are also some of the world's largest carbon sinks, and the Great Southern Reef therefore acts as a buffer against climate change. [7] Unfortunately, an estimated 95% of the giant kelp forests off the coast of Tasmania have died off over the past few decades due higher water temperatures and the long-spined sea urchin. [6] [8]
This "kelp highway hypothesis" suggested that highly productive kelp forests supported rich and diverse marine food webs in nearshore waters, including many types of fish, shellfish, birds, marine mammals, and seaweeds that were similar from Japan to California, Erlandson and his colleagues also argued that coastal kelp forests reduced wave ...
Kelp is a large brown seaweed that forms large underwater forests covering about 25% of the world coastlines. [65] They are among the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth. [ 66 ] Some Sargassum seaweeds are planktonic (free-floating) and form floating drifts.