Will kelp forests be another wildfire casualty?
The NASA-funded KelpFire project, led by Erin Hestir, campus director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at UC Merced, aims to track the effects of wildfire runoff on kelp populations using remote sensing and on-the-ground observations.
Kelp, a fast-growing brown algae, forms forests below the ocean’s surface that provide food and habitat for hundreds of marine species and absorb greenhouse gases, making them a crucial combatant in the fight against climate change. Highly sensitive to changes in the environment, however, kelp populations — and marine ecosystems at large — could face permanent or long-term damage from the Los Angeles wildfires.
“They’re a big sentinel species that are indicators of how our coastal ecosystems are thriving,” said Hestir.
While previous California wildfire events burned mostly organic material, the recent fires razed homes and cars, causing an enormous amount of man-made plastics, electronics and chemicals to wash into the ocean in subsequent rain events. The response of kelp populations to these stressors — whether they survive or die out — will inform researchers of the fires’ broader effects on sea life.