ArticleAnnals of botany2024
Loss, resilience and recovery of kelp forests in a region of rapid ocean warming.
Article in Annals of botany, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- From kelp forests to turf reefs: Patterns, drivers, and impacts to functional diversity.Ecology · 2026Article
- Pathways of blue carbon export from kelp and seagrass beds along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.Science advances · 2025Article
- Antagonistic Effects of Light Pollution and Warming on Habitat-Forming Seaweeds.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Victim of changes? Marine macroalgae in a changing world.Annals of botany · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsChanges in kelp abundances on regional scales have been highly variable over the past half-century owing to strong effects of local and regional drivers. Here, we assess patterns and dominant environmental variables causing spatial and interspecific variability in kelp persistence and resilience to change in Nova Scotia over the past 40 years.
methodsWe conducted a survey of macrophyte abundance at 251 sites spanning the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia from 2019 to 2022. We use this dataset to describe spatial variability in kelp species abundances, compare species occurrences to surveys conducted in 1982 and assess changes in kelp abundance over the past 22 years. We then relate spatial and temporal patterns in abundance and resilience to environmental metrics. KEY
resultsOur results show losses of sea urchins and the cold-tolerant kelp species Alaria esculenta, Saccorhiza dermatodea and Agarum clathratum in Nova Scotia since 1982 in favour of the more warm-tolerant kelps Saccharina latissima and Laminaria digitata. Kelp abundances have increased slightly since 2000, and Saccharina latissima and L. digitata are widely abundant in the region today. The highest kelp cover occurs on wave-exposed shores and at sites where temperatures have remained below thresholds for growth (21 °C) and mortality (23 °C). Moreover, kelp has recovered from turf dominance following losses at some sites during a warm period from 2010 to 2012.
conclusionsOur results indicate that dramatic changes in kelp community composition and a loss of sea urchin herbivory as a dominant driver of change in the system have occurred in Nova Scotia over the past 40 years. However, a broad-scale shift to turf-dominance has not occurred, as predicted, and our results suggest that resilience and persistence are still a feature of kelp forests in the region despite rapid warming over the past several decades.
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