Kelp Forests in Transition: Consequences for Oregon’s Marine Species of Greatest Conservation Need

Описание: Elakha Alliance Webinar hosted on March 12, 2025.

Nearshore ocean conditions are changing along the west coast of North America. These recent shifts in ocean drivers have contributed to broad-scale impacts to marine and estuarine habitats, and include unfortunate consequences for several of Oregon’s Marine Species of Greatest Conservation Need. This talk will summarize historic and ongoing work undertaken by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife / Marine Resources Program to characterize the current status and changes to the complex community of bull kelp, abalone, sea urchins, and sea stars within Oregon’s rocky reef habitats. Considered together, the magnitude of ecological change is unprecedented in recorded history. The new surveys establish fresh baselines to assess future changes to Oregon’s rocky reef communities, and help us ponder some key questions: Do the current communities represent a shifting baseline or “new normal” for Oregon’s rocky reef habitats? Will the community continue to respond and adapt into an alternative stable-state? Is it possible to help enhance recovery of abalone, sea stars, and kelp by the deliberate reduction of sea urchins and re-establishment of sea otters?

Presenter Biography: Dr. Steve Rumrill is the Leader of the Shellfish Program at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife where his team conducts habitat characterizations, stock assessments, monitoring activities, and scientific studies for a diverse group of bay clams, razor clams, mussels, abalone, crab, shrimp, sea urchins, and other shellfish. Steve is a marine biologist, estuarine ecologist and invertebrate zoologist who has been working on the Oregon coast for over three decades. He earned his PhD in Zoology (1987) from the University of Alberta where he investigated critical early life-history events and natural mortality of echinoderms along the west coast of Vancouver Island, and his MSc thesis (1983) documented the reproductive biology of brittle stars in Monterey Bay