Along the California coast, a quiet restoration is unfolding in the surge and sway of kelp. After years of marine heatwaves and runaway sea urchins, something small and surprisingly forceful is pushing the system back toward balance. Sea otters, once written off as charismatic bystanders, are reemerging as builders – animals that change the very ...
California’s sea otters have always felt like a comeback story written in salt spray and stubbornness. Once nearly wiped out by the fur trade, they clawed back along a narrow sliver of the Central Coast, transforming bays and kelp forests as they went. But the plot has twisted again: bites from white sharks, warming seas, ...
Sea otters are keystone species in kelp forests. Kelp forests rely on the top-down pressure sea otters exert via predation on sea urchins. By controlling the sea urchin population, they help manage the grazing pressure on kelp, since sea urchins graze on kelp. Cuties Kelp forest ecosystems are able to flourish in the presence of ...
Suhail Ahmed
Suhail Ahmed
