As carbon emissions change the chemistry of the seas, ocean acidification threatens marine life and human livelihoods. How worried should you be about climate change’s so-called “evil twin”?
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Every winter, my family returns to the same rocky cliffside in Sea Ranch, 100 miles north of San Francisco, for one thing: sea urchins.
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Restoration efforts for kelp forests may be most effective in areas where the bedrock seafloor is highly contoured, research by Oregon State University suggests.
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A sea urchin is a study in contradictions: tenacious and spiky on the outside, vulnerable and velvety on the inside.
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Long overlooked, these rainforests of the sea are now being increasingly recognised for the many ecosystem services they provide.
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‘Zombie’ purple urchins have obliterated West Coast kelp forests with their insatiable appetites. Can they be stopped?
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A California fisherman sails the choppy waters of climate change and drought.
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Coastal and marine ecosystems play a significant role in the global carbon cycle, sequestering and storing carbon over long timescales.
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Grant Downie is cruising through Caspar Bay, a small cove 150 miles north of San Francisco on the rugged Mendocino County coast. From the helm of his 18-foot fishing boat, The Rose, Downie steers along the jagged cliffs that surround a pristine beach at the shore.
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On the fishing dock in Noyo Harbor, two days’ haul of purple sea urchin barely filled a large plastic crate.
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The pasta arrives last, after the Scottish salmon in yuzu ponzu, the karaage and the bluefin tuna belly with shiitake salsa. It comes a full 45 minutes after the tsukune, cooked over natural oak charcoal.
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The population of kelp forests, which help clean the air, has fallen dramatically. That has environmentalists worried.
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Researchers have urged the New South Wales government to support sea urchin harvesting along the South Coast as a way of boosting the economy and controlling the environmental pest.
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Conner Rhoads is an urchin diver and fisherman, whose way of life and relationship to the ocean has been passed down from generation to generation.
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Underwater kelp forests have provided valuable ecosystem services for millennia. However, the global economic value of those services is largely unresolved.
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Until recently, giant seaweed called bull kelp formed lush underwater forests in northern California’s coastal waters. These kelp forests have long provided critical habitat for many species like salmon, crabs, and jellyfish.
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Spring has returned to the California coast, bringing with it abundant sunshine and calmer seas. Storm-tossed sands settle. Nourishing cold water floods in from offshore. It is time for a climate superhero to emerge.
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Climate change is responsible for increased frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme events, such as marine heatwaves (MHWs). Within eastern boundary current systems, MHWs have profound impacts on temperature-nutrient dynamics that drive primary productivity.
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Kelp forests along Northern California have almost vanished. Divers and scientists are racing to stop purple sea urchins from taking over critical habitat.
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Scientists investigating declines in California’s kelp forests credit otters with helping to protect kelp - a species of seaweed - through their fondness for eating sea urchins.
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