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Catalina Island Leadership Program

Phoenix Country Day School

Kelp Forest Information Links

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries

Introduction: Our research question was, “How do changing sea temperatures affect the Giant Kelp and the kelp forest ecosystem?” For our research project, we chose to go into more depth investigate the answer to the question. We feel that this is a very important topic since global warming and rising sea temperatures are occurring in our world today. Since global warming is a relatively new concept, there are still many things that scientists are unsure about including its impact on ocean life. Our paper will further explore the devastating effect that global warming has on the Catalina Kelp Forest.

If there was no kelp forest at Catalina Island, there would be no life. Many fish depend on the kelp forest for food, shelter, and much more. We, the Phoenix Country Day School eighth grade, went to Catalina Island to see not only the animals and algae of the California oceans, but the more important implement to the ecosystem; kelp. Our research base was Howland’s Landing in the northern part of the island. Our lab team, Frances, Kylie, and Lindsay, went on snorkels, kayaks, and hikes to find the answers we needed for our 2007 Catalina Science Project.

In order to conduct our research, we used a variety of methods. The first activity was kayak. While kayaking, we stopped at various different locations to take the sea temperature from both the surface and a few meters under the water so that we could find the difference of sea temperatures at different depth. We also found the temperatures at Emerald Bay later on in our trip so that we could find the difference in temperatures from Emerald Bay and Howland’s Landing, where we kayaked on the first day. We used thermometers to measure the temperature of the ocean. To get the temperature of the water a few meters under we lowered the thermometer into the water and left it for a few minutes before pulling it back up. We recorded our readings on the waterproof paper that we brought with us. We took samples and found information to benefit our project in the afternoon on October 15th and again on the 18th during our activities.

Research: Going to Catalina helped us a lot with our research. Before we went, we had predictions of what we would find and what we would see based on the research we had done. We took the water temperature on the first day both on the surface and below the surface a few meters. The temperature on the surface was 16 degrees Celsius, while the water temperature a few meters down was 17 degrees Celsius. This surprised us since the water temperature under the surface is usually colder than the water on the surface. We believe that since the water temperature is starting to cool, the water on the surface has started to cool off, but the water temperature farther under has not quite cooled off as much. Another theory of ours is that the sea surface temperature was affected by the wind since it was windy when we did our research. We also measured the water temperature in a different location, Emerald Bay, where the surface temperature and the temperature under the water were both the same at 18 degrees Celsius. Emerald Bay was different because where it is located there is more wind and currents.

Kelp needs water that is colder than 22 degrees Celsius in order to live. The sea temperature is currently increasing about 1 degree Celsius each century. If this increase continuities, the temperatures rise causing the kelp will die. Once the kelp is gone, the whole rest of the kelp forest falls apart. For example, the sea urchins eat the kelp so once the kelp is gone, the sea urchins will perish. The sea otters rely on the sea urchins, so when the kelp dies and the sea urchins perish, the sea otters will be gone too. Among the creatures that rely on the kelp are crabs, snails, abalone, and fish. With the warm water, many foreign species come in like Asparagopsis seaweed, lobsters, and other animals that are not usually there. Biodiversity is good, but getting too many foreign species and creatures in the Channel Islands will affect the ecology, usually in a negative way.

Sea Urchins are small marine animals called echinoderms or “spiny skinned”. They have chalky skeletons in the shape of a sphere. It has spines used for crawling on the sea floor and at the end of each spine are suction cups used for taking in drifting plankton or kelp. On the bottom, they have five sharp teeth used for grinding plankton, little snails, barnacles, mussels, and kelp. Since kelp is one of the main parts of the sea urchin’s diet, a shortage of kelp can be deadly. If the kelp does disappear, the snails and plankton (other things sea urchins eat) will move to where there is more kelp. The sea urchins will have nothing to eat. But then again, studies by David Kushner during the years 1992-1998 showed that if sea urchins are too abundant, it would be very easy for the sea urchins to get infected by disease. High sea urchin densities are subject to bacterial disease that kills many sea urchins. So, if the kelp dies off from warm water, than the sea urchins can disappear because of food shortage, but if there an abundant sea urchin population many sea urchins will contract disease and die off from sickness. It makes life difficult for the sea urchins.

Sea otters are the main predator of the sea urchin. They are marine animals in the same family as the to the land mammals the skunk and the mink. They can stay under water for only a few minutes. They can eat large amounts of food - 25-35 pounds per pound of body weight per day. The sea otter might be the smallest marine animal in North America, but they play a very important role in the ecosystem. They hunt and limit the abundance of sea urchins so the urchins won’t get over populated and die off from disease. However the sea otters were hunted earlier this century and their population fell declined worldwide. Now, they are making a comeback and have been put on the endangered list.

By doing our research, we have found out that kelp is a key part of the Channel Islands ecology and kelp forest. Everything is connected, and everything works together. Once one link in the chain, like the kelp, is gone, the whole thing falls apart and nothing is the same anymore. This means, that if the sea temperatures keep rising due to global warming and various other factors, our kelp forests will soon be gone and so will all of the animals that live in the kelp forest and rely on the kelp.

Conclusion: For our eight-grade class Catalina was a very educational experience. Our group learned about how everything is connected. We researched the rising sea temperatures and how they affect the kelp forest and how they will affect kelp forest life in the future.

In the future it would be great if we could add more to our research. We could do this by spending more time dedicated to researching sea otters. We did not see a lot of them this trip but they play a very important role in the food chain. Sea otter eat sea urchins. If we could travel further north in the Channel Islands we would sea more urchins and which means we would find sea otters. We did not see sea otters in the places that we snorkeled because they were eradicated from the area due to the hunters who wanted the pelts or was it or it could be because the hunter thought that the sea otters were eating too much of the abalone. Because our research paper partially focuses on sea otters and sea urchin’s relationship to kelp traveling further north would help make our project better.

Scuba is another way we could get closer to the kelp. Frances and Kylie are certified scuba divers. The majority (plus) of our class is 13 going on 14. Snorkeling is great but scuba diving is a whole other experience. By scuba diving you can get a closer view of the fish and see them from a different perspective. This could have made our work even better by being able to get the bottom view instead of just skimming the surf. From the bottom one could see the holdfasts of the kelp and also the bottom feeders. Scuba diving would benefit our project. Even though we did not get the opportunity to scuba dive this year, we still learned a lot and found valuable information to improve our project.