Adorably fuzzy sea otters aren’t just cute. The marine mammals serve a crucial role, helping to restore the giant kelp forests they rely on by removing their top predators, the sea urchins. When ...

Adorably fuzzy sea otters aren’t just cute. The marine mammals serve a crucial role, helping to restore the giant kelp ...

Historical analysis shows that the marine mammals likely kept some of California’s kelp forests growing over the past 100 years. By Laura Baisas Published Jan 23 ...

Researchers examining a century of ocean maps made an exciting discovery linking sea otter populations to kelp forests: Where sea otters thrive, so do these critical underwater habitats. The research ...

The study reveals dramatic regional kelp canopy changes along the California coast over a 100-year period. During this time there was a significant increase in kelp forest canopy along the central ...

Jon Holcomb had been diving for urchins for more than three decades, but he’d never seen a downturn like the one that started in 2013. The valuable red urchins that lived off the coast of northern ...

In Northern California, purple sea urchins are decimating kelp forests. Though the species of urchin causing problems may vary by region, the damage is the same. NNehring/iStock This article is from ...

Detritus can fundamentally shape and sustain food webs, and shredders can facilitate its availability. Most of the biomass of the highly productive giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, becomes detritus ...

New modeling method helped researchers understand why kelp forests returned more slowly in Southern California than in British Columbia. When sea otters were reintroduced along the coastlines of ...

Sea urchins have no brains or hearts. But put them in the proximity of the unmistakable sunflower sea star, and somewhere in their pin cushion-like body, they sense trouble. That's the main finding of ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. While they have no backbone, sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia ...