What kind of plant is kelp

These underwater towers of kelp provide food and shelter for thousands of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammal species. Kelp forests harbor a greater variety and higher diversity of plants and animals than almost any other ocean community. Many organisms use the thick blades as a safe shelter for their young from predators or even rough storms. Among the many mammals and birds that use kelp forests for protection or feeding are seals, sea lions, whales, sea otters, gulls, terns, snowy egrets, great blue herons, cormorants, and shore birds.

These dense canopies of algae generally occur in cold, nutrient-rich waters. In fact, from Tasmania and Australia to Norway, western Europe , and the west coast of North America , kelp forests are under dire threat.

And while warming ocean waters are taking a toll and will continue to do so if climate change continues unchecked , the biggest threat comes from sea urchins. Sea urchins love kelp and will eat through an entire kelp forest in no time. Unfortunately, when the last kelp strand has been cut down, large herds of sea urchins respond to the stress of starvation by becoming aggressive and growing larger, more powerful teeth. These new teeth allow them to crunch through just about anything in their path, which only compounds their destructive influence.

Today, the NPS oversees parks and monuments spanning over 84 million acres of land across the U. It is, arguably, one of our greatest American institutions! A remarkable phenomenon of marine ecology, " urchin barrens " occur when their populations grow to such extraordinary densities that vegetation on the entire seafloor is annihilated, leaving behind an ecological wasteland. And as they gather and multiply, a virtually impenetrable barrier is formed, which prevents anything else from coming back.

Unfortunately, once established urchin barrens will persist indefinitely. While there is little hope for kelp forests that have already been annihilated and turned into urchin barrens — or for those that grow in rapidly warming waters — scientists have been investigating and experimenting with different ways to help for some time. Because as it turns out, sea otters love urchins just as much as urchins love kelp! And if left alone, they will happily keep the urchins in check.

But when they decline, urchin populations explode. For this reason, sea otters are considered a keystone species similar to the stone at the top of an arch that prevents the other stones from falling down, keystone species prevent the collapse of entire ecosystems in kelp forests.

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Do you want to LearnCast this session? This article has been posted to your Facebook page via Scitable LearnCast. Change LearnCast Settings. Scitable Chat. Register Sign In. Those who question the wisdom of diving in Southern California point out that the temperate water is colder than the water in tropical climes and that California does not have great diving days a year, but those who have explored a healthy kelp forest on a day when conditions are favorable will tell you that there is not a more beautiful sight in the natural world.

Good television based on sea lore? Bad science? In other words, there is no way that kelp can ingest a person. Second, kelp cannot reach. It floats, and lacking muscles gets moved back and forth by wave action, surge and current, but not by its own volition.

That said, it is still possible to become entangled in kelp when you dive. If you do, the easiest thing to do is to simply grab the kelp and lift it away from you. If, however, you get a little more seriously entangled, you can easily free yourself by snapping the stipes in much the same way that you might break a pencil, and with about as little effort. A great volume might be written, describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of seaweed … I can only compare these great aquatic forests … with terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions.

Yet, if in any country a forest was destroyed, I do not believe nearly so many species of animals would perish as would here, from the destruction of kelp. What do paint, fertilizer, shampoo, ice cream, beer, and fingernail polish have in common?

The perhaps surprising answer is that they contain ingredients from kelp. Beyond its pure beauty, kelp has many practical uses. In , the U. Department of Agriculture sponsored a study of kelp beds to determine the commercial usefulness of kelp, and since that time kelp has been used in numerous industrial and household products.