https://earthcrew.com/category/soil-health/Wild Kelp Forests
Extreme heat is breaking records and transforming people’s lives across the world. While we feel this heat most immediately in our home and workplaces, the reality is that most of it is absorbed in the ocean. Here waves, tides, and deep-ocean circulation currents pull heat from the surface down into the deeper layers of the ocean.
The ocean absorbs about 91% of the excess heat trapped by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. This growing “energy imbalance” explains why ocean temperatures keep breaking records and why sea levels keep climbing. Those same greenhouse gas emissions are also changing the chemistry of seawater. The effects of these changes are increasingly being felt on land. But for those working in the ocean space, climate change is already here. The ocean is our clearest indicator of climate change — and the effects of the changes are sobering.
Starting with kelp forests formed by brown seaweeds that thrive in cool, nutrient-rich waters worldwide. Under optimal conditions, these “redwoods of the sea” can grow at remarkable rates, with species such as giant kelp capable of growing up to two feet per day and towering more than 100 feet from the seafloor to the surface. They are one of the fastest growing organisms on the planet and remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Beyond their natural beauty, kelp forests provide a host of valuable ecosystem services such as absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while producing vital ocean oxygen. They sustain fisheries, are a source of nutrients for land based animals and agriculture as well as assisting with coastline buffering during storms.
Yet wild kelp is under pressure from rising ocean temperatures, marine heatwaves, pollution, over harvesting and grazing by exploding sea urchin populations. Kelp bed restoration efforts are underway through the study of canopy-forming kelp and lesser-known seaweeds that occupy the middle and lower levels of the forest. While warm water stresses temperature-sensitive kelp, lowers nutrient availability, and causes die-offs when temperatures stay elevated, establishing seed banks of heat-tolerant individuals are being saved for future restoration efforts.
