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The purple sea urchin, along with sea otters and abalones, is a prominent member of the kelp forest community. [18] The purple sea urchin also plays a key role in the disappearance of kelp forests that is currently occurring due to climate change; [19] when urchins completely eliminate kelp from an area, an urchin barren results.
Some believe the only way to restore kelp is to reduce the purple urchins, which can go dormant for years only to remerge and eat new kelp growth. Chefs have started serving purple urchins to ...
The coast of Southern California is known as a source of high quality uni, with divers picking sea urchin from kelp beds in depths as deep as 24 m/80 ft. [85] As of 2013, the state was limiting the practice to 300 sea urchin diver licenses. [85] Though the edible Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis is found in the North Atlantic, it is not widely ...
For example, mechanical dredging of kelp destroys the resource and dependent fisheries. Other forces also threaten some seaweed ecosystems; for example, a wasting disease in predators of purple urchins has led to an urchin population surge which has destroyed large kelp forest regions off the coast of California. [4]
Kelp forests along the west coast are also threatened by invasive species such as Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (Purple Sea Urchins). This species reproduces fast and can devour kelp from its roots at an alarming rate; particularly when it’s main predators, the sea stars, are decimated by a disease called Sea Star Wasting Syndrome.
The species is a smaller and shorter-spined cousin of the purple urchins devouring kelp forests. They produce massive numbers of sperm and eggs that fertilize outside of their bodies, allowing ...
Once Kina populations become out of control, kelp forest can be entirely eaten away, leaving bare rocks, also known as Kina Barrens. [7] A notable example of a Kina Barren is the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, which after also experiencing overfishing, has been almost entirely stripped of other marine life.
An area of the subtidal where the population growth of sea urchins has gone unchecked causes destructive grazing of kelp beds or kelp forests (specifically the giant brown bladder kelp, Macrocystis). The transition from kelp forest to barren is defined by phase shifts in which one stable community state is shifted to another. [2]