Effect of a kelp forest on coastal currents

Abstract Ocean currents supply a kelp ecosystem with nutrients, planktonic food, and larvae. We have found that these currents in a kelp forest (Macrocystis pyrifera) are slower than currents outside. At the Pt. Loma, San Diego, California, site that we studied, current velocities were about a third of those outside. A comparison of frequency spectra shows that semi-diurnal frequencies are preferentially passed by the kelp. This effect of a kelp forest on the currents that nurture it is similar to that of a terrestrial forest on local winds.

[1]  C. Winant.  Longshore Coherence of Currents on the Southern California Shelf During the Summer , 1983 .

[2]  R. R. Strathmann,et al.  Larval Mortality from Offshore Mixing as a Link between Precompetent and Competent Periods of Development , 1981, The American Naturalist.

[3]  J. Bendat,et al.  Random Data: Analysis and Measurement Procedures , 1971 .

[4]  George Keith Batchelor,et al.  An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics. , 1969 .

[5]  R. Bray.  INFLUENCE OF WATER CURRENTS AND ZOOPLANKTON DENSITIES ON DAILY FORAGING MOVEMENTS OF BLACKSMITH, CHROMIS PUNCTIPINNIS, A PLANKTIVOROUS REEF FISH , 1981 .

[6]  R. Beardsley,et al.  A Comparison of Some Shallow Wind-Driven Currents , 1979 .

[7]  B. Bernstein,et al.  SELECTIVE PRESSURES AND COEVOLUTION IN A KELP CANOPY COMMUNITY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA , 1979 .

[8]  J. Monteith,et al.  Principles of Environmental Physics , 2014 .

[9]  C. Winant.  COASTAL CIRCULATION AND WIND-INDUCED CURRENTS , 1980 .

[10]  M. Tegner,et al.  Population Structure, Recruitment and Mortality of Two Sea Urchins (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus and S. purpuratus) in a Kelp Forest , 1981 .

[11]  W. N. Wheeler.  Effect of boundary layer transport on the fixation of carbon by the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera , 1980 .

[12]  A. Thom,et al.  Turbulence in and above Plant Canopies , 1981 .

[13]  R. Sellin.  Flow In Channels , 1970 .

[14]  G. Jackson.  2 – Marine Biomass Production through Seaweed Aquaculture1 , 1980 .

[15]  G. Jackson.  Nutrients and production of giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, off southern California1 , 1977 .