The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., is embarking on a new scientific project in partnership with the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wis., and California Sea Grant in San Diego, Calif., to help bull kelp.
Kelp forests provide critically vital habitats for marine animals. People around the world also benefit from healthy kelp forests because they are an important source of oxygen and provide coastlines with physical protection from waves.
The rise of sea temperatures, over-predation of kelp from purple sea urchins, and the loss of urchin-eating sunflower sea stars have caused a major decline in kelp forests in the northern Pacific Ocean. In Northern California, bull kelp has declined by 95 percent since 2008.
The conservation project focuses on preserving the genetic diversity of bull kelp to help facilitate future kelp forest restoration. Aquarium animal husbandry staff are carefully preserving 1,400 gametophytes or genetic material, of bull kelp which will be stored in stasis at the Aquarium. The gametophytes can be used to grow kelp for out-planting it in the ocean to help restore kelp forest ecosystems.
The preservation technique is similar to what seed banks accomplish for plants. The difference is that kelp use spores to disperse; these will settle and germinate into male and female microscopic gametophytes that will reproduce. By putting the gametophytes into stasis, the cell growth is decreased keeping the bull kelp in microstages.
“In the event that wild kelp populations suffer catastrophic loss of genetic diversity, these gametophytes could be used to produce new kelp to restore local ecosystems,” said Jenn Anstey, Aquarium of the Pacific assistant curator. “They can also be selectively bred to develop kelp that is more resistant to warmer temperatures.”
Photo Credit: © Aquarium of the Pacific
Edited by Sarah Gilsoul, a writer and communications program assistant
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