Part I: So, What's the Problem?

Hello again!

Hello, science enthusiasts! Hello, animal lovers! Hello, conservationists! Here's your second stream of bubbles containing interesting information from this little corner of the California coastline. I'm Shelby, and I'm here to offer some insight on the health and function of some of the most important features of Northern California's coastal ecosystems.

I left the last post talking fairly vaguely about the kind of damage I learned has been done to Sonoma and Mendocino county's kelp forests. I had heard some stuff about California Fish and Wildlife considering closing the red abalone fishing in 2016, but I didn't know why it was going to happen. I knew people were mad about it, but I couldn't form an opinion or view on the issue without more information. I had other stuff on my mind anyway; I was going in to my last year as an undergrad, I was going onto dialysis before my second kidney transplant...I had a lot to deal with. After graduating college and received my second transplant, I finally had the time and mind to start focusing on the big picture. I had time to set up a volunteer position to prepare me for grad school and a career as a scientist. But after entering that field, seriously, for the first time, I wish I had known more beforehand. I wish I had been informed.

A timeline of events that, compounded together, created an environment unsuitable for kelp forests. Source: https://cdfwmarine.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/perfect-storm-decimates-kelp/

The reason Fish and Wildlife were threatening to—and eventually did—close the abalone fishery, is because something scientists referred to as a “perfect storm” of environmental events had wreaked havoc on Sonoma and Mendocino county's kelp forest communities, unbalancing the food web to extremes (Catton, Rogers-Bennett, 2016). The events can be outlined as follows:

Here's an infrared map of HABs in California. Source: https://phys.org/news/2018-09-scientists-genetic-basis-algal-blooms.html

2011: Harmful Algal Bloom. Harmful algal blooms happen when the water is too stagnate and warm to properly circulate nutrients, trapping them in areas and encouraging the growth of poisonous phytoplankton (microscopic algae). The H.A.B in Sonoma county killed off large populations of marine invertebrates.

A sunflower sea star showing symptoms of wasting disease. Source: https://phys.org/news/2016-10-survey-impact-sea-star-disease.html

2013: Seastar Wasting Disease. Wasting disease is an illness that has been effecting sea stars and sunflower stars along the west coast of North America since 2013. It's a syndrome characterized by lesions and degradation of the tissues until the body and limbs melt apart; fragment. It can cause death within days. Large swaths of the North American sea star and sunflower sea star populations have died off because of this disease. As of now, the populations have not recovered in any substantial number, and the nature of the pathogen (microbe) causing the disease is still unknown. It is most likely aggravated by warm water.

Without sunflower stars to keep their numbers down, purple sea urchins have essentially taken over in areas where kelp normally grows. Source: https://noyocenter.org/help-the-kelp/

2014-Present: Purple Urchin Boom. Without the presence of their primary predator, purple sea urchins have been reproducing unimpeded since 2014, reaching 60 times their normal density (Catton, Rogers-Bennett, 2016). They're responsible for essentially mowing down Northern California's kelp forests.

Here's an infrared map of the development of the Blob from 2014 to 2016. Source: https://www.nps.gov/articles/theblob.htm 

2014-Present: Warm Water “Blob”: Northern California started to see unprecedented warming in 2014, starting with the formation of what was known as the “Blob”; a mass of stagnate, unusually warm water that refused to circulate with the usual currents.

That is a lot of hot water. Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2015/10/14/godzilla-the-blob-son-of-blob-el-nino-reality-check/#.XEQPGlxKhPY 

2015-Present: El Niño: The addition of an El Niño, or a change in ocean temperature circulation on the currents, compounded the warmth to California's coast. This compounded with the Blob to create giant bodies of warm water. Both invertebrates and kelp are very sensitive to changes in water temperature, and warm water doesn't hold nutrients nearly as well as cold water. Kelp doesn't have a root system, so it relies on the surrounding water for their nutrient intake.

This tumbling of bad events over the past few years has radically altered the structure of Sonoma and Mendocino county's kelp forest food webs. I'll talk about this in more detail in the next post, but this extreme shift in environmental conditions has caused what is called a “trophic cascade”, meaning the tightly functioning system has wavered and collapsed. The lack of a keystone species allowed the purple urchins to multiply and eat at an uncontrolled rate, changing the kelp forests into what are known as “urchin barrens”.

This is what an urchin barren looks like; no food, no shelter, barely any diversity. Just bare rock covered in urchins mowing down anything that tries to grow, leaving nothing for the other animals that live there. Source: https://cdfwmarine.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/perfect-storm-decimates-kelp/ 

These are essentially the complete opposite of kelp forests; large expanses of mostly barren rock and sand where only hard pink algae—called crustose coralline algae—can grow. Urchins cover these rocks, eating anything and everything they possibly can. There's no food and no shelter for the other invertebrates and fish inhabiting these areas. The red urchins people harvest have poor egg quality, and the red abalone people dive for are shrunken and weak from starvation.

This is what a healthy abalone looks like, at least from the bottom. Their strong foot clings to the rocks, allowing them to withstand wave action and resist attack from predators. Source: https://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/06future/abintro.htm

This is what an abalone looks like when its starving; shriveled and weak, unable to cling to rocks to protect themselves from predators. Source: https://cdfwmarine.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/perfect-storm-decimates-kelp/ 

I was stricken when I realized this was happening. I was horrified at the thought of all these animals stuck in starvation mode, dying off in such large numbers it could seriously effect their conservation status. It didn't matter to me that abalone are basically just large sea snails; they're important, to both us and their community. And, they're living creatures; living creatures who are suffering, and that was enough for me.

I mean, look at this little guy! I hate it that he has to starve, don't you?

I wanted to help; I wanted to do something. That's why I've started this endeavor; I had no idea how many species were in such desperate conditions. Neither do most people; it's the kind of situation where, because people aren't seeing it right before their eyes, they don't know or don't bother to care. I hope to change that.

As I said, I plan on explaining the different aspects of this phenomenon and the ecology behind it in further detail over the course of this blog. I'll explain the physiological aspects of the animals involved, and I'll explain how this has affected us. Hopefully I can educate and interest you all enough to follow along and eventually take up the cause of helping these important communities in any way you can.

Stay curious.

"Sea" you next week!

Sources:

1. https://cdfwmarine.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/perfect-storm-decimates-kelp/
2.  https://phys.org/news/2016-10-survey-impact-sea-star-disease.html
3. https://noyocenter.org/help-the-kelp/
4. https://www.nps.gov/articles/theblob.htm
5. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2015/10/14/godzilla-the-blob-son-of-blob-el-nino-reality-check/#.XEQPGlxKhPY 
6. https://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/06future/abintro.htm