The Santa Barbara Channel’s kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp, the foundation species of rocky reefs, serves as a major part of the beach food web as fronds of ...

Though spatially distinct, the Santa Barbara Channel’s subtidal kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), the foundation species of rocky reefs, ...

Kelp forests have declined across the world and governments, organizations and businesses are mounting ambitious efforts to protect and restore 9 million acres of kelp globally by 2040. Still, the ...

While kelp forests persist along northern Maine’s rocky coast, kelp abundance has declined by as much as 80% on the southern coast in recent decades. In its stead, carpet-like turf algae have moved in ...

Biologists thought that marine heat waves lowered urchin reproduction only at lethal temperatures. A new study shows ...

A sea otter floating above ribbons of kelp is undoubtedly one of nature’s cutest scenes. It’s well known that the marine ...

Kelp forests support a kaleidoscope of biodiversity and perform crucial ecosystem functions, yet they are in trouble globally. A recent journal commentary shows that just 15.9% of kelp forests are in ...

While free diving to photograph kelp forests along the California coastline, I’ve viscerally felt the consequences of finiteness as a living being—the fleeting nature of a single breath, the limits of ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif) — The kelp forest is ephemeral, yet foundational. Fronds of this fast-growing giant seaweed come and go with the seasons, storms and waves, supporting communities of fish, ...