BIOB50H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Aphid, Kelp Forest, Continental Drift
Document Summary
From kelp forest to urchin barren: a case study. In the aleutian island shoreline there are kelp forests. There aren"t kelp forests in other near by islands, but there are lots of sea urchins (urchin barren), a few kelp or other large algae. The islands with kelp forests vs. the islands with urchin barrens have no difference in terms of physical constructs (ex. Since sea urchins eat algae, the grazing by urchins might prevent the formation of kelp forests where sea urchins are present. Studies in the aleutian islands and along the alaskan coast showed that kelp forests were not found in regions where there were many large sea urchins suggested that urchins might determine where kelp forests are located. Second study effect of sea urchins was tested by measuring change in kelp densities in multiple 50m2 plots with and without seas urchins. There wasn"t any kelp in any of the plots in the beginning.
