Computer Model Locates Forests of Endangered Tropical Kelp

SANTA BARBARA, California, September 26, 2007 (ENS) - A research team led by San Jose State University and the University of California-Santa Barbara has discovered forests of a species of kelp previously thought endangered or extinct in deep waters near the Galapagos Islands.

The scientists say this discovery has important implications for biodiversity and the resilience of tropical marine systems to climate change. The research paper describing the discovery is published in this week’s on-line issue of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

"The ecosystems that form in these cold, deep pockets beneath warm tropical waters look more like their cousins in California than the tropical reefs just 200 feet above," said co-author Brian Kinlan, a researcher with UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute.

"It is very similar to what we see when we climb a high mountain. For example, high alpine country in California looks more like Alaska," he said.

Kinlan and Michael Graham, associate professor at SJSU, began by developing a mathematical model designed to predict likely habitat for the kelp, Eisenia galapagensis, based on information from satellites and oceanographic instruments on conditions including light, depth and nutrient availability.

Collaborator Louis Druehl, of the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, suggested it was possible to create a predictive model for locating kelp forests rather than focusing on the limited details available from rare field observations.

The research team tested the model by traveling to the predicted habitat, where they searched for the kelp. Students wearing scuba gear found the kelp forests from 40 to 200 feet below the surface, making the mission a success.

The students conducted their surveys alongside the world's only seagoing iguanas, Amblyrhynchus christatus.

The mission's success has three major implications, the scientists say. First, IUCN-World Conservation Union, which recently added Eisenia galapagensis to its global database of threatened species, may reconsider that action.

Second, the model may find other marine life presumed endangered or rare but actually hidden beneath the ocean's surface.

The third implication of the research is that marine biodiversity may be more tolerant of climate change than presumed.

Graham teaches and conducts research at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, founded in 1966 by an SJSU-led consortium of seven CSU campuses. Kinlan plays a similar role at UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute. The Hall Family Foundation, Charles Darwin Foundation and the National Science Foundation provided financial support for the project. Collaborators included the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos, Bamfield Marine Science Centre in Canada, and the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory.

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