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More than 95 percent of California’s coastal kelp forests have been killed by an explosion of purple sea urchins. Commercial divers like Byron Koehler and Gary Trumper have been hired to help control the purple urchin population. Photo Credit: Dexter Hake for The New York Times
Photo by Athena Maguire
On the left, a healthy red abalone and on the right, a shrunken red abalone.
Photo Credit: Steve Lonhart/NOAA/MBNMS
‘Zombie’ Urchins Are Destroying Kelp Forests. Can’t We Just Eat Them?
New York Times - October 07, 2021
Today, more than 95 percent of California’s coastal kelp are gone, devoured by a population explosion of purple sea urchins in the past seven years. This proliferation has led to dead zones known as “urchin barrens,” where carpets of urchins can be seen for miles. One such barren encompasses 400 miles of coastline from Marin County to the Oregon border.
Last year, Ms. Rogers-Bennett’s team at U.C. Davis collaborated with a company called Urchinomics, which had been working on similar problems in Norway and Japan. Together, along with the Nature Conservancy, they worked to determine whether their technologies were transferable to California.
Critically endangered sea star not recovering in the wild, scientists point to the need for restoration efforts
The Nature Conservancy - August 25, 2021
New research documenting the population crash of the iconic sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), and complete absence of population recovery since the 2013 outbreak of the marine wildlife epidemic sea star wasting disease, was published today in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study calls for new strategies for protecting species impacted by increasingly frequent marine epidemics associated with changing ocean conditions.
The analysis was a collaborative and international undertaking between scientists at Oregon State University, The Nature Conservancy and over 60 partner institutions ranging from First Nations, academia, NGOs, state and federal agencies, and community-based monitoring programs spanning the entire west coast of North America.
Survivors of Climate Driven Abalone Mass Mortality Exhibit Declines in Health and Reproduction Following Kelp Forest Collapse
Frontiers in Marine Science - August 16, 2021
Marine ecosystems are vulnerable to climate driven events such as marine heatwaves yet we have a poor understanding of whether they will collapse or recover. Kelp forests are known to be susceptible, and there has been a rise in sea urchin barrens around the world. When temperatures increase so do physiological demands while food resources decline, tightening metabolic constraints. In this case study, we examine red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) looking at sublethal impacts and their prospects for recovery within kelp forests that have shifted to sea urchin barrens.
Long Term Impacts of Marine Heatwave on Kelp Forests
Communications Biology - March 05, 2021
A new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz, with coauthors from UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis, documents the collapse of kelp forest ecosystems off the coast of Northern California. Analyzing the contributing events, from warming oceans to the loss of sunflower sea stars, researchers used satellite imagery from over 30 years to assess historical changes and better understand the dynamics and resilience of kelp forests.
A red abalone attaches itself to the hand of project scientist Daniel Swezey in 2017 during experiments at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. (Joe Proudman/UC Davis)
For Red Abalone, Resisting Ocean Acidification Starts With Mom
UC Davis - October 05, 2020
Red abalone mothers from California’s North Coast give their offspring an energy boost when they’re born that helps them better withstand ocean acidification compared to their captive, farmed counterparts, according to a study from the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis.
The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, compared the effects of ocean acidification on wild and farmed red abalone to identify traits that commercial growers and conservation managers could use to help sustainably produce California’s declining abalone species into the future. Such information could help these groups address accelerating negative climate change impacts facing the abalone aquaculture sector.
Photo by Shane Stagner on Unsplash
California’s critical kelp forests are disappearing in a warming world. Can they be saved?
National Geographic - April 30, 2020
The “sequoias of the sea” suck up carbon and shelter special species. They’ve been hit hard, but scientists, surfers, and more are banding together to save them.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Rising Tides, Troubled Waters: The Future of Our Ocean
Rolling Stone Magazine - April 02, 2020
The blob went unnoticed at first. In the summer of 2013, a high-pressure ridge settled over a Texas-size area in the northern Pacific, pushing the sky down over the ocean like an invisible lid. The winds died down, and the water became weirdly calm. Without waves and wind to break up the surface and dissipate heat, warmth from the sun accumulated in the water, eventually raising the temperature by 5 degrees Fahrenheit — a huge spike for the ocean.
Denise MacDonald holds a purple sea urchin at the Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory. (Ryan Tamborski for KQED. Use with permission)
Kelp! They Need Somebody … To Eat Sea Urchins
KQED - December 26, 2019
Urchinomics and its partner, the UC Davis' Bodega Marine Laboratory, are running a trial designed to develop methods for ranching purple sea urchins for profit, while at the same time addressing the consequences of a nasty ecological chain reaction.
Scientist Laura Rogers-Bennett holds a tray of purple urchins that went through lab trials. Once nearly empty in the wild, their orange roe is now ready to eat. (Alysha Beck, UC Davis)
From Overpopulation to Hors d’oeuvres
UC Davis - December 18, 2019
Wildlife conservation sometimes involves eating fewer animal products. But to save California’s kelp forest, a new dish is being added to the menu: purple sea urchin.
Northern California’s bull kelp forests have experienced massive declines since 2014. Credit: Kevin Joe/California Department of Fish and Wildlife
An Undersea Forest In Decline
Science Friday - November 15, 2019
Envision California’s lush forests from San Francisco to the Oregon border. Now imagine that 90 percent of those forests disappear within two years. Laura Rogers-Bennett, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, says that’s exactly what happened to underwater kelp forests off Northern California’s coastline from 2014-16.
First White Abalone Release Marks Major Milestone for Species Facing Extinction
CDFW News - November 15, 2019
A career dedicated to mollusks isn’t always easy. Sometimes progress can occur at a snail’s pace. But a team of scientists are close to reaching a significant milestone in their efforts to bring white abalone — a species of sea snail — back from the brink of extinction.
A new solution to California’s sea urchin problem: Ranch them and eat them
San Francisco Chronicle - November 05, 2019
Purple sea urchins have laid waste to Northern California coastal zones in recent years, decimating the kelp forest and ruining the habitat of other sea creatures that depend on it.