The actions of the wind, differences in temperature within the ocean and differences in density and salt concentration all act together to produce the great ocean currents that flow around the world. webs. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav1139. Bald eagles and sea otters in the Aleutian Archipelago: indirect This same drift kelp feeds the abalone. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. If the value of otter carbon banking is recognised by our human banks, maybe the mustelids will soon swim across more reefs and estuaries fighting climate change while they're at it. Sea otters can greatly affect the environment they live in. As the marine mammal species that it protects return to ecologically effective population sizes, we learn what their roles once were, and more importantly, how they might contribute to ecosystem resilience in the future. Ocean Sciences Building, Box 355351 Seattle, WA 98195, uwpcc@uw.edu or, by Guy Lasnier, University of California - Santa Cruz. 4. Although the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources listed the sea otter as a species of least concern in 1996, population declines since the 1980s due to the effects of pollution from oil spills, conflicts with fisheries, predation by sharks and killer whales, and disease prompted the organization to reclassify the sea otter as an endangered species in 2000. Our fish studies focused on rock greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus), the numerically dominant species in this region. Unlike its northern cousin, however, the marine otter spends much more time on land, where it makes its dens in sea caves, along windswept beaches, or in gaps within rock outcrops. University of California - Santa Cruz. Sensors Hint They Do. Enhydra lutris is the furriest animal on Earth, with up to 140,000 hairs on every square centimeter of its body meaning its hairs are 700 times as dense as those on a human head. During the event, we received 395 chat messages in the YouTube live chat and had 364 concurrent viewers at the peak. "When I think about marine plants that can sequester carbon really well, it's typically the rooted ones," says Hughes. In these zones, otters mostly feed on crabs. Wilmers, Estes, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and their co-authors, combined 40 years of data on otters and kelp bloom from Vancouver Island to the western edge of Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 1982, Estes and Duggins 1995, Watson and Estes 2011, Burt et al. Consuming herbivorous urchins (genus Strongylocentrotus) enables kelp forests and the fish associated with them to flourish. Understanding the full impacts of warming requires factoring in the complexity of ecosystems. Medical research advances and health news, The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. The spreading kelp can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to ravenous sea urchins, the study finds. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! Since then, researchers have learned more about the complementary roles that other sea urchin predators, like sea stars, play in controlling overgrazing by sea urchins, but the conclusion that sea otters defend kelp patches and help to promote eventual regrowth has not changed. Questions or comments on this article? In temperate rocky reef ecosystems, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) trigger a cascade of direct and indirect effects driving transitions between kelp-depleted and kelp-dominated states. Tour routes of great scenic drives on National Wildlife Refuges. Because sea otters (Enhydra lutris) exert a wide array of direct and indirect effects on coastal marine ecosystems throughout their geographic range, we investigated the potential influence of sea otters on the ecology of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. Floating on its back, it opens mollusks by smashing them on a stone balanced on its chest. While diving in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the 1970s, James Estes, a marine ecologist with the University of California, Santa Cruz, documented that kelp forests without sea otters essentially become underwater deserts. Blue rockfish in a giant kelp forest off North Monastery Beach, Carmel, California, 2022. Moreover, indirect interactions Far below their vantage point at the edge of the rugged Big Sur cliffs, tossed on rough waters, was a cluster of buoyant, dark forms. Then, using a device called a respirometer, researchers measured otter muscle cells respiratory capacity in different states of oxygen flow compared with other animals including humans, Iditarod sled dogs and elephant seals. And for the most part, they were right. Because sea otters (Enhydra lutris) exert a wide array of direct and indirect effects on coastal marine ecosystems throughout their geographic range, we investigated the potential influence of sea otters on the ecology of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. At 2012 prices (US$47 per ton of C . Leaks in the energy-generating parts of muscle cells help otters maintain a resting metabolism three times as fast as predicted for a creature their size, researchers report in the July 9 Science. When otters are around, sea urchins hide in crevices and eat kelp scraps. Is that sea otter stealing your lunch -- or making it? Indirect effects of sea otter-driven trophic cascades vary across "An alluring idea," they write, would be to sell the carbon indirectly sequestered by the sea otter protected kelp forest "as a way to pay for their reintroduction and management or to compensate losses to shell fisheries from sea otter predation. Although the indirect effects of sea otters are widely known, this example is unique because the food-web pathway transcended five species and several trophic levels in . The biologist attributed this improvement from their near-extermination just a few years earlier to the states total protection. Rudolf created four habitats with pond water at present-day temperatures and four with heated pond water. Whereas urchin-dominated communities supported more diverse fish assemblages than kelp-dominated communities, this was not a simple effect of the otter-induced trophic cascade because all islands supported more diverse fish assemblages in 2000 than in the mid-1980s. that the number of potential indirect interactions is vastly greater than the number of potential direct interactions in all but the simplest interaction webs (Estes et al. How Do Ocean Currents Affect Inland Weather? | Sciencing That means it's pulling carbon from the atmosphere faster than a slower growing plant (though kelp is technically an alga). Omissions? But otters extreme metabolism helps them stay cozy in the waves. The appetite of the sea otter is a threat to individual abalone who have not hidden themselves in deep rocky crevices, but where sufficient crevice habitat is available, this same appetite brings benefits to abalone populations. These slugs and snails often don't eat the seagrass; instead they scrape away the algae that grows on the grass, which allows the seagrass to absorb more sunlight and grow more efficiently. Sea otters are also the smallest marine mammal in the northern hemisphere. The theory is outlined in a paper released online today (September 7, 2012) in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by lead authors UC Santa Cruz professors Chris Wilmers and James Estes. Today, there are about 3,000 southern sea otters, and although their condition has improved since the time of ESA listing, they remain far from the MMPA goal of restored ecological relevance. That's because it can grow really fast up to 60cm (24 inches) a day. During the event, we received 395 chat messages in the YouTube live chat and had 364 concurrent viewers at the peak. But when dead kelp sinks to the sea floor, it might not surface (and therefore decompose and produce carbon dioxide) for thousands of years. MeSH Also known as: Enhydra lutris, great sea otter. As sea otters have been reintroduced or naturally recovered in other coastal areas of North America, they have substantially disturbed the structure and dynamics of nearshore food. In a study on black abalone, which were listed as endangered in 2009 due to the combined effects of past overharvesting and a devastating disease called withering syndrome, researchers found that the highest densities of black abalone occurred in areas with the highest densities of sea otters. She currently works as a research technician at the Seattle Aquarium where she assists with on-going conservation research projects spanning rockfish surveys, sea otter foraging, endocrinology, microplastics and coral reef monitoring. They are primarily found in kelp forests, which are underwater forest-like systems, home to many species. Learn more about structure and function of the surrounding ecosystem. This explanatory language, which accompanied the 2021 Appropriations Act, also instructed the Service to study the feasibility and cost of reestablishing sea otters on the Pacific Coast of the contiguous United States. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. What participants desired most out of the event was to learn and connect. Indirect food web interactions: sea otters and kelp forest fishes in the Aleutian archipelago. The video link was shared 53 times. And it could lead to new insights into how the ancestors of these creatures first evolved to live and thrive in the seas. Sea otters also play a singular role in supporting kelp forests ecosystems in the North Pacific. Along with it goes the habitat for numerous species, including fish, invertebrates and other mammals. 2018 Jun 27;8(15):7346-7354. doi: 10.1002/ece3.4259. Effects of predator depletion or recovery are frequently accompanied by time lags, which are often context-dependent. Its not yet clear if otters inherit this trait or develop it with exposure to cold water. This loss of otters demonstrated their indispensable role in kelp forests. Sea otters can also benefit seagrass. Sea otters are creatures steeped in superlatives. Since then, conservation efforts have allowed the otters to rebound somewhat, but some 2,500 miles (4,000km) of coastline in their historic range is still devoid of the furry mammals. And when older roots die, the carbon becomes locked in the sediments, where it can take hundreds of years or more to convert back to its gaseous form. Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. The two losses are connected. If prey species in sea otter habitat decline due to changing temperatures, this would reduce available food for otters. Simenstad. Effects of predator depletion or recovery are frequently accompanied by time lags, which are often context-dependent. Indirect food web interactions: sea otters and kelp forest fishes in the Aleutian archipelago. Finding similar leak capacities in wild and captive otters of different ages suggests that these leaks are the driving force behind otters metabolism, Wright says. Join one million Future fans by liking us onFacebook, or follow us onTwitterorInstagram. Bald Eagles and Sea Otters in The Aleutian Archipelago: Indirect The voracious echinoderms not only mowed down the kelp but are also tearing apart and devouring the massive, slow-forming limestone reefs on which this seaweed grows, Rasher and his colleagues recently reported in Science. Sea otters were not affected by oil from the Santa Barbara spill because they had not recovered their range that far south. Sci Adv. These invertebrates have become known as "zombie urchins" for this ability. These currents are large and cyclical, taking the form of loops. Springer-Verlag 2005. "I felt like I had learned something that was fairly remarkable.". An adult male sea otter weighing 34 kg provides 61,540 kcal (34,000 gm 1.81 kcal gm -1 of wet weight); a 23-kg adult female otter provides 41,630 kcal. In kelp forest systems, the influences of trophic interactions between sea otters and their prey spread through the interaction web via several pathways. By Lilian Carswell, Southern Sea Otter Recovery and Marine Conservation Coordinator,Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, People traveling on Californias newly built Highway 1 in 1937 saw something astonishing. Even at a lower estimate, sea otter carbon sequestration can add up. It could be that warmer conditions slow the larvaes metabolism, prompting the predators to eat less, Rudolf says. While scuba diving around the Aleutian Islands in 2014, marine ecologist Doug Rasher saw little sign of the curtains of lush green kelp forests he would have had to push through decades earlier. . "They have this little radula that gently scrapes [the seagrass] and takes off all the epiphytes growing on it. If urchin populations grow unchecked, they can graze down a kelp forest very quickly, called a trophic cascade. I believe my capstone project was successful in accomplishing all of the learning objectives. In California's Elkhorn Slough estuary, eelgrass had nearly disappeared by the early 1980s due to declining water quality nutrient pollution from farms increased algal growth, smothering the seagrass. Skeletal muscle thermogenesis enables aquatic life in the smallest marine mammal. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Your support enables us to keep our content free and accessible to the next generation of scientists and engineers. "If ecologists can get a better handle on what these impacts are, there might be opportunities for win-win conservation scenarios, whereby animal species are protected or enhanced, and carbon gets sequestered," he said. Scientists already knew sea otters rely on an extreme metabolism to maintain, on average, a 37 Celsius body temperature, eating 25 percent of their body mass in food every day (SN: 6/13/14). and Terms of Use. The sea otter is the largest otter, reaching 100160 cm (4065 inches) long and weighing 1640 kg (3590 pounds) when fully grown. Producing heat this way helps the animals stay comfortable in 0 C Pacific waters. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy Because these proton leaks increase the amount of energy lost as heat, otters need to eat more food to make up for that lost energy, revving up their metabolism. Large species within carnivora are large carnivores. amount of work on sea otter-sea urchin-macroalgal relationships, our study focuses on the indirect effects of this trophic cascade on kelp forest fishes. Even before the sea otter effect was studied, kelp has been thought of as a possible climate solution. This story was updated August 24, 2021, to correct the description of surface area's effect on heat loss. In contrast, in areas with otters, the kelp flourished along with the diverse aquatic community that feeds and shelters among the seaweed. Being a small-bodied marine mammal in cold waters presents a real thermal challenge, says Traver Wright, a comparative physiologist at Texas A&M University in College Station. Water transfers heat 23 times as efficiently as air, and small bodies with greater surface area relative to their volume lose heat faster, even when covered in fluff. Before PDF Chapter 5. Ecosystem Effects of Sea Otters - Elakha Alliance PDF Direct and Indirect Effects of Sea Otter Recovery on the Central Coast 2006. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Randall Davis (Image obtained under USFWS Marine MammalPermitNo. 2020 Feb;192(2):391-401. doi: 10.1007/s00442-019-04578-8. Among their favorite foods are sea urchins, which are easy to catch and dense in calories. Wright and colleagues searched for the heat source in otters muscles. But because the researchers also included sea urchins in their tanks, they realized how the two forces interacted: sea urchin grazing increased significantly as warming and acidity increased, pushing the system beyond a critical tipping point, Rasher says. government site. The loss or recovery of apex predators can have profound positive or negative ecological and socio-economic impacts. Overall, we found higher fishable biomass of copper rockfish at sites where sea otter occupation was greatest, and evidence that copper rockfish catch rates were higher in relatively larger kelp beds. This could be a game changer in terms of how we think about the evolution of all marine mammals, not just sea otters, says Terrie Williams, an ecophysiologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the study. Read about our approach to external linking. eCollection 2019 Mar. Sea otters were transferred from state management to federal management, and in 1977 the U.S. Sea otters are lean and compact, the smallest mammals in the ocean, bobbing like furry barrels on waves. 2018 Sep 12;5(9):181228. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181228. Epub 2019 Dec 19. 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192, Indirect food web interactions: Sea otters and kelp forest fishes in the Aleutian archipelago, S.E. The events are designed to directly align with the Aquariums mission, to inspire conservation of the marine environment.
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