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Catalina Island Leadership Program

Phoenix Country Day School

Kelp Forest Information Links

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries

Introduction:

On Monday, October 15, 1007, our research team arrived on Catalina Island, off of the coast of California. I had seen pictures of kelp thoroughly read about it, though, that barely prepared me for what lie ahead. The kelp forests were more than I had ever dreamt about; they were like a complete different world.
Kelp has been around forever it seems. And the humans would always question it. People would ask why did it grow so much lat year, and not at all the next. They’d wonder how it could produce so quickly, but not take over the ocean. We researched how kelp and its growth differed in the years of 1998-1999(very strong La Niña years) and year of 2004(a neutral year), our control subject.

Research:

Kelp reproduction is a semi-simple process. In the spring adult kelp release millions of microscopic male ad female spores into the sea. The male sperm from the spore fertilizes the female egg from the spore and they grow into a zygote. The zygote is pushed by currents and finally, a few of them, cling to a rock or rocky soil and begin to grow. Kelp needs three thing for it to adequately grow; cold temperatures below or around 20 degrees Celsius, shallow waters so the sunlight can reach the kelp, and rich nutrient filled water. This water becomes even cooler in an environmental phenomenon called La Niña. La Niña is the cooling of the ocean temperatures starting on the western coast of South America, close to Peru, and making is way North and South.
In the years of 1998 and 1999 kelp reproduction was faster and more plentiful than usual. This was so because the water was colder in this La Niña year enabling the kelp to grow healthier and faster than usual. Though from March to November of 1999, a large part of that La Niña cycle, the kelp reproduction plummeted and the kelp forests had grown sparse. This was not because of the weather, as far as we know, but because of an opposite and destructive factor. It was a sublethal amphipod-grazing event. An amphipod or amphipoda is a tiny shrimp-like crustacean that is both marine and terrestrial. Though, the majority of the amphipoda are marine species. Small amphipoda ate away at all of the kelp. Because there was so much kelp, the amphipoda were able to eat as much as they want and healthily repopulate at and alarming pace. Their reproduction was more than the sufficient amount of kelp could support and suddenly died out.
In the year of 2004, a normal or control year, kelp reproduction was average. The kelp grew consistently the same throughout the same year, except during the summer when the temperatures rose and some of the kelp died out. It did so, but not disturbingly fast or to any extreme. Though, in 2004, the kelp grew 2.0 miles of off the coast of Catalina in a certain point and the kelp in that same point only grew 1.4 miles out. We think that this was because the water was too cold farther out in the La Niña year for the kelp to grow, but just cold enough in the control year. We found this by putting on the kelp layer from 1999 and 2004 on our My World map using the measure tool and measuring how far the kelp grew out both years in the point that we had chosen.

Conclusion:

We found overall that our hypothesis which was that the kelp would grow better in and more plentiful was proven correct. The cold water makes a further area range for the kelp to grow and spread out. Tough, strangely, in the La Niña years of 1998-1999 we found that the kelp didn’t grow in some spots that it did that were farther out from the shore, than they did in 2004. My hypothesis is that this is because the water must have been to cold for I to grow in 1998 and 1999 but just right for the year of 2004.
In the future, or if we were to perform this project again and in more depth there are many changes I would have made. For one, I would have set up numerous dates such as the first of every other month of ten alternating years for us to go to Catalina. We would also choose one kelp forest area that we would monitor over a long period such as ten years. We would find out that some of the years would turn out to be La Niña years so we could have researched the kelp first hand.
In conclusion, kelp reproduction differs immensely in the La Niña years versus the normal years. In La Niña years it may grow more abundantly but not as far out into the sea, and in normal years it may grow at a healthy pace but farther out.