Our community is made up of people of all ages, and sizes, with varying diets and lifestyles. Our community also includes plants, animals, and other organisms with abilities and habits we can scarcely imagine. In the last few years there’s been bad news about our neighbors in the intertidal community, also known as tide pools. I’ve heard about kelp disappearing, abalone starving, and sea stars dying mysteriously so I went to the Noyo Center for Marine Science in Ft. Bragg to find out more. The Noyo center hosts monthly science talks as part of their mission to educate the community about the coastal ecosystem. This month the guest speaker was Dr. Brianna Zuber
The intertidal zone is the area between low and high tide, lots of different creatures live there. It might not be obvious from a human perspective, but even in the best of times this ecosystem is a tough place to live. The organisms need to be able to adapt to wide fluctuations in temperature, and salinity. They also need to deal with drying out, and being poinded by waves as the tides advance and recede. Other challenges include competition for space and oxygen when water levels are low, and avoiding predators that can come from the land, sea, or sky. Once they’ve adapted to these challenges they need to find food.
The lifestyles of these organisms may be hard for humans to relate to, but they have adapted to this habitat despite the daily challenges they face, and though the tide pools are full of life today, They are in trouble.
the kelp forests are experiencing a steep decline which means species like abalone are starving. Sea stars are suffering from a mysterious wasting disease which could have devastating consequences as they are a keystone species. In 2013 there was a huge die-off of sea stars along the entire pacific coast, from Alaska to Mexico. The cause is still unknown, but it is thought that a number of factors may contribute, including ocean acidification and climate change. Sea Star wasting syndrome has decimated as much as 90 percent of the population in some parts of California.
So what is being done? Conservation organizations are gathering data to address the problem, and there is a glimmer of hope. early observation of young sea star genetics suggest that surviving stars may have evolved an immunity to the wasting syndrome. If the sea stars make a comeback, the kelp forests might recover, which would bring the ecosystem back into balance.
To learn more about our coastal ecosystem, or to participate in conservation efforts visit noyocenter.org