KELP
FOREST - ENVIRONMENT
News:
Big shots - Kelp forests
What's
in the news?
●
A kelp forest in the Chilean coastal area
of Chiloe, about 1400 km south of Santiago.
Key
takeaways:
●
Chile's
Patagonia is home to the largest continuous kelp forest in the world.
●
They are crucial for battling climate
change, yet more than half of them around the world have been destroyed by
human activity.
Kelp
Forest:
●
Kelp forests are underwater forests that thrive well in cold, nutrient rich waters.
●
Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds attached to the seafloor and eventually
grow to the water's surface and rely on sunlight to generate food and energy.
●
These forests are always coastal and
require shallow, relatively clear water.
●
These forests harbour a greater variety
and higher diversity of plants and animals than almost any other ocean
community.
●
Kelps
live further from the tropics than coral reefs, mangrove forests, and
warm-water seagrass beds, so kelp forests do not overlap with those systems.
Distribution
of Kelp Forest:
●
Kelp forests occur worldwide throughout temperate and polar coastal oceans.
●
Kelp forests have been observed throughout
the Arctic by the Inuit.
○
The Canadian Arctic alone represents 10
percent of the world's coastlines.
●
They have adapted to severe conditions:
○
These cool water species have special
strategies to survive freezing temperatures and long periods of darkness and
even grow under sea ice.
●
In regions with cold, nutrient-rich water, they can attain some of the highest
rates of primary production of any natural ecosystem on Earth.
●
In the northwestern Canadian Arctic, lack
of rock substrate and a harsher climate support smaller, fragmented kelp
forests.
Threats
to Kelp Forest:
●
Thawing
permafrost and crumbling Arctic coasts are dumping sediments
into coastal waters at alarming rates, which blocks light and could limit plant
growth.
●
The run-off from melting glaciers will
also lower salinity and increase turbidity, which impacts young kelp.
●
Destructive
fishing practices, coastal pollution, and accidental damage
caused by boat entanglement are known to negatively affect kelp forests.
●
Sea
urchins can destroy entire kelp forests at a rate of 30 feet
(9 m) per month by moving in herds. Sea otters play a key role in stabilizing
sea urchin populations so that kelp forests may thrive.
Significance:
●
Kelp forests throughout the world play an
important role in coastal economies,
supporting a broad range of tourism, recreational and commercial activities.
●
Kelp is used as food by the North
Americans, and the kelp aquaculture industry is growing at a rate of seven
percent per year for the last 20 years globally (kelp is a coveted food source
in many countries, full of potassium, iron, calcium, fiber and lodine).
●
In the Arctic, Inuit traditionally use
kelp as food and wild harvest numerous species.