What factors drive the health, growth and productivity of giant kelp?
What factors drive the health, growth and productivity of giant kelp? There are several, but according to researchers at UC Santa Barbara and at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), what you see depends on the scale at which you’re observing.
“Depending on your spatial scale of observation — whether you are looking at kelp forests regionally or really honing in on a specific local area — the patterns that manifest at these scales may be indicative of different drivers,” said Tom Bell,(link is external) a project scientist at UC Santa Barbara’s Earth Research Institute and assistant scientist at WHOI, and lead author of a paper(link is external) published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Being able to observe the different drivers of giant kelp productivity and health across various scales, he said, can yield a more nuanced, current understanding of how kelp forests respond to changing climactic conditions.
A Foundation Species
Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) are the largest marine algae in the world. Stretching to more than 100 feet in height, they can be found in dense patches along the California coast. They are host to a wide array of marine animals that rely on them for food, shelter and to rear their young. People, too, rely on kelp forests for recreation and to support and attract fish and other seafood.
Read more at University of California - Santa Barbara
