The Kelp Forest That Sea Urchins Ate Alive
Off the coast of Northern California, a vanished predator triggered an explosion of purple sea urchins that devoured 95% of a bull kelp forest in a few years. This is the story of a single missing species, a barren underwater desert, and the divers now hand-culling urchins to bring the forest back.
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Northern California lost over ninety-five percent of its bull kelp forests between twenty-fourteen and twenty-sixteen.
Sea star wasting disease wiped out the apex predators that previously controlled purple sea urchin populations.
Purple sea urchin populations increased sixty-fold, transforming diverse kelp groves into monochromatic urchin barrens.
Starving purple urchins prevent kelp regrowth by acting as a standing army that consumes new spores.
The kelp collapse destroyed a forty-four million dollar recreational abalone fishery and commercial red urchin industries.
Manual removal of urchins by divers has successfully restored localized patches of bull kelp forests.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Vanishing Forest2 min
- 03The Missing Guardian2 min
- 04The Economic Ripple Effect2 min
- 05The Divers' Resistance3 min
- 06Outro1 min
- Landsat Shows the Collapse of Northern California Kelp ...
- The Vanishing Kelp Forest
- Monitoring the Collapse of Kelp Forests - NASA Science
- Persistent kelp forests during a massive decline reveal the ... - PMC
- Frontiers | Cascading impacts of a climate-driven ecosystem transition intensifies population vulnerabilities and fishery collapse
- Subtidal Scuba Surveys
- Large-scale shift in the structure of a kelp forest ecosystem co ... - PMC
- California's crashing kelp forest | ScienceDaily
- [PDF] “Perfect Storm” Decimates Northern California Kelp Forests - CA.gov
- Restoration of Northern California Bull Kelp Forests
- PROJECT OVERVIEW
- 1
- Pioneering Project to Restore Bull Kelp Forests in Greater ...
- Kelp Restoration Program
- Urchin Removal on the North Coast Shows Promising Results for ...
- Assessment of practical methods for re-establishment of northern ...
- [PDF] Urchin Removal to Support Potential Kelp Forest Recovery
- A Fighting Chance for North Coast Bull Kelp
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