Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests

Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests

Subject: Environment

Context: Disappearing Kelp forest

What are kelp forests?

• Kelp forests grow along more than one-quarter of the world’s coastlines, and are among the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems.
• But these critical habitats are disappearing due to warming oceans and other human impacts.
• Kelp forests are often regarded as “underwater rainforests”. Formed by the dense growth of several kelp species, they produce a three-dimensional habitat and a highly productive system.
• Usually found in water temperatures below 20 °C, kelps are large brown algae that attach to the seafloor (‘benthic’).
• Not only can kelps grow amazingly fast in the right conditions – up to 30 cm per day – they can also reach 45 m long for the giant kelp.
• Sudden recent wipeouts of vast kelp forests along the coastlines of Tasmania and California highlighted how little was known about protecting or restoring these vital marine ecosystems.
• Losing wild kelp forests reduces protection of coastal communities from storm surges and removes an important carbon sink.
• Worldwide, more than one million tons of wild kelp are harvested each year, according to 2019 data from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Much of that, about 40%, is collected off the coast of Chile, with wild brown seaweeds sold to commercial markets for diverse purposes, including food production, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and biotechnology.
• Kelp  substance is widely used in pharmaceutical products, like pill coatings or toothpaste, and food production, including ice cream or beer.
• Fishing through kelp forests using destructive methods like bottom trawling has also been implicated in dramatic declines of kelps, Being a cold-water species, kelp forests are sensitive to elevated temperatures. As ocean temperatures increase as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, massive kelp forest die-offs are increasingly likely, with their return questionable.
• One major difference between wild and farmed kelp, for example, is where it grows in the water column, Wild kelp is attached to the seafloor, while farmed kelp is suspended above it on lines or platforms.
• although giant kelp is a perennial, bull kelp dies off in winter and reappears in summer, making detection tricky.
• kelp can be a moving target: Severe storms can uproot entire forests overnight.
• Green Gravel Action Group.
  • This international group of researchers will trial Green Gravel restoration in different regions for kelp seaweed restoration