What does kelp do for the environment?

Asked by: Joe Spence

Kelp forests provide food, nursery areas, and shelter—including protection from predators and storms—for hundreds of commercially and recreationally important fish species as well as West Coast marine wildlife.

How does kelp affect the environment?

Because kelps are primary producers that modify the environment to create suitable habitat for a great diversity of species, they are known as foundational species. Kelp forests are also among the most productive ecosystems in the world, allowing them to support the diverse assemblage of life that inhibits them.

How does kelp help the Earth?

In fact, they provide important habitats for many marine species like starfish, salmon, rockfish, and kelp crabs. They’re also a vital nursery for herring who spawn (release eggs) on kelp. With their soaring stipes and blades, kelp forests protect the eggs by slowing the movement of water.

What is the kelp role in the ecosystem?

Kelps are ecologically important primary producers and ecosystem engineers, and play a central role in structuring nearshore temperate habitats. They play an important role in nutrient cycling, energy capture and transfer, and provide biogenic coastal defence.

How does kelp benefit the ocean?

Kelp and other seaweeds are an important part of the marine ecosystem. Not only do they provide habitat and a source of food for a wide variety of sea life, kelp beds also disperse wave energy to protect shorelines from erosion.

What is kelp and why is it important?

Because seaweed is a primary producer and makes its food from the sun, many organisms feed on the kelp and then in turn feed other animals. While kelp is food for many organisms, kelp also provides shelter for many forms of sea life.

What would happen if the kelp disappeared?

Red abalone have been severely impacted by the loss of kelp and thus lack of food, causing the abalone fishery to close until at least 2021. Sea birds and marine mammals are also feeling the effects. With fewer fish available, the birds do not have enough food to feed their chicks.

Is kelp good for climate change?

Globally, seaweeds are thought to sequester nearly 200 million tonnes of CO2 every year – as much as New York State’s annual emissions. “If we used the infrastructure we have in the ocean and created seaweed islands, we would actually eliminate a lot of the climate change issues we have today,” says Winberg.

Can kelp save the world?

Beyond carbon dioxide, kelp also uses nitrogen to grow, which means that it can save the sea from another problem caused by humans — nitrogen pollution.

Does kelp clean the ocean?

They store carbon in their photosynthesising fronds, and their wave-buffering bodies are the surest defence some coastlines have against violent storms. They also clean up our waste: kelps can rapidly absorb nutrient pollution caused by fertilizers running off from farmland into the sea.

How do kelp forests benefit society and the economy?

They are known to be one of the most productive natural ecosystems on the planet supporting complex food webs in coastal zones and providing food, shelter and habitat for a variety of invertebrates, fish, mammals and seabirds Graham, 2004;Norderhaug et al., 2005;Teagle et al., 2017).

How does kelp prevent erosion?

The effect of kelp on coastal processes in nearshore systems

The capacity of coastal vegetation to provide protection against erosion and flooding is therefore dependent on their ability to exert drag. Thus, kelp-induced drag could create wave attenuation and potentially reduce sediment transport.

How much oxygen do kelp forests produce?

The golden brown blades are like leaves, containing the chlorophyll for photosynthesis. Marine algae are very important to all organisms on earth, as they produce 70 percent to 80 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Giant kelp acts as the ecosystem engineer in the underwater forests off our coast.

Does kelp produce carbon dioxide?

An expert panel assembled by the Energy Futures Initiative estimated that kelp has the capacity to pull down about 1 billion to 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. But scientists are still grappling with fundamental questions about this approach. How much kelp can we grow?

What produces the most oxygen on Earth?

oceanic plankton

Scientists estimate that 50-80% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean. The majority of this production is from oceanic plankton — drifting plants, algae, and some bacteria that can photosynthesize.

Does kelp add oxygen to the water?

Kelp biomass is concentrated near the surface in the canopy region, so an increase in kelp photosynthesis can further elevate dissolved oxygen and pH in surface waters relative to deeper water (Frieder et al., 2012; Koweek et al., 2017).

Does kelp do photosynthesis?

Kelp is like a plant – it is photosynthetic and has structures that look like roots (the kelp holdfast), stems (the stipe) and leaves (blades)– but kelp and other algae belong to a separate kingdom of life from plants, called protists.

Can kelp help ocean acidification?

As more carbon dioxide fills the air, more of the gas dissolves into seawater, making the ocean more acidic and threatening marine organisms. Giant kelp may offer a local solution. As kelp grows, it captures carbon from the water and produces oxygen, possibly removing enough carbon dioxide to relieve acidification.

What happens if there is no oxygen for kelp?

So after low-oxygen waves move through the kelp forest, they may leave pockets of hypoxic water along the bottom, altering and compressing fish habitats.

Why is kelp used in toothpaste?

Kelp (Ascophyllum Nodosum) is a nutritious seaweed which is rich in calcium and trace minerals. Evidence suggests that kelp helps to cleanse teeth by removing plaque. (Kelp is already widely used in pet products for its ability to remove plaque).

What does kelp feed on?

Like land plants, kelp uses energy from sunlight to make its own food. This process is called photosynthesis. Sunlight is captured by the plant and the energy particles in sunlight (photons) are used to drive a chemical reaction that produces sugar. This sugar is the food for the plant.