Anthropogenic Effects on Kelp Forests
Anthropogenic Effects on Kelp Forests
This chapter examines the predation and trophic cascades in kelp communities, focusing on the relationships between sea urchins and their predators. It is often assumed that the natural state of kelp forests is tight trophic control, such that when top predators are reduced in abundances by humans, there is a “relaxation in top-down control” on sea urchins and a subsequent decline in macroalgal abundance, often referred to as a trophic cascade. There are two types of trophic cascade: species-level and community-level. In a species-level cascade, changes in predator numbers affect one or a few plant species in a compartment of the food web. Community-level cascades may apply to any multilevel linear food web interaction and alter the distribution of plant biomass through an entire system.
Keywords: predation, trophic cascade, kelp communities, sea urchins, kelp forests, species level cascade, community-level cascade
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