Despite high attrition, reintroductions using translocated wild sea otters have resulted in about 35% of global sea otter abundance. Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZmiqJ12Mms, Autumn 2021 Current Climate Change Research Seminar: IPCC AR6 WG1 Chapter Summaries, Winter 2021 Current Climate Change Research Seminar: A PCC/CHanGE Partnership, Spring 2022 Current Climate Change Research Seminar: IPCC AR6 WG2, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies. The result was less early-winter carrion for the parks many scavengers, such as grizzly bears and ravens, with dead elk bunching up at the end of relatively severe winters. She has also written for Science,Massive ScienceandAsk Dr. Universe, a science column for kids. Epub 2008 Jun 3. Before the fur trade, the range of sea otters spanned the entire North Pacific rim, from the northern islands of Japan to midway down the Pacific Coast of Baja California, Mexico. Comparing kelp density with otters and kelp density without otters, they found that "sea otters have a positive indirect effect on kelp biomass by preying on sea urchins, a kelp grazer." The rate of oxygen flow offers an indirect measurement of cells heat production. After the event, there were >1,000 views of the YouTube video within 12 hours. Most of the participants go so far as to consider climate impacts when they make decisions in their personal lives. Evidence of this coevolution may be seen in the bodies of animals, like abalone, today. In the 1960s, they reached the waters of Gorda and San Simeon, north of Morro Bay, prime fishing grounds for a lucrative commercial abalone fishery that had begun in earnest after World War II. 2020 Feb;192(2):391-401. doi: 10.1007/s00442-019-04578-8. Sea otters lack the blubber and large body size that help other marine mammals survive frigid ocean temperatures. In 2020, the Seattle Aquarium transitioned its Lightning Talk event to a virtual format. 2018 Sep 12;5(9):181228. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181228. What participants desired most out of the event was to learn and connect. "When we help restore missing keystone predators, we make things right in a lot of ways before we even recognise what some of those ways are," Lilian Carswell, the southern sea otter recovery coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote in an email to the BBC. PMC . Find out more about how we calculated this figure here. The .gov means its official. "An alluring idea," they write, would be to sell the carbon indirectly sequestered by the sea otter protected kelp forest "as a way to pay for their reintroduction and management or to compensate losses to shell fisheries from sea otter predation. While much focus has been placed on the effects of heat stress on scleractinian corals-including bleaching, mortality, and loss of reef structural complexity-and many studies have documented changes to reef fish communities arising indirectly from shifts in benthic composition, the direct impacts . But because the researchers also included sea urchins in their tanks, they realized how the two forces interacted: sea urchin grazing increased significantly as warming and acidity increased, pushing the system beyond a critical tipping point, Rasher says. Sea otters were transferred from state management to federal management, and in 1977 the U.S. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. That perspective is echoed in a soon to be published paper by University of Colorado Boulder ecologist Laura Dee, who points to the many indirect effects warmer temperatures can have on a species. Researchers have proposed that sea otters and their evolutionary progenitors could be indirectly responsible for evolution of the unusually large body sizes of the abalone species in the North Pacific Ocean. One species had lower survival rates in heated water when it was on its ownbut when exposed to either competition or predation, the rates between heated and nonheated ponds were virtually equal. Crabs eat animals that clean the estuary's sea grass of algae, which is caused by farm pollution. Rogers-Bennett, L . Scientists already knew sea otters rely on an extreme metabolism to maintain, on average, a 37 Celsius body temperature, eating 25 percent of their body mass in food every day (SN: 6/13/14). Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. To me, this is probably one of the clearest pieces of evidence saying, Heres how they did it, Williams says. Input from stakeholders will be critical in informing next steps. . You might have reduced survival because of the direct effect of heat, he says, but [changes caused by] predation and competition can compensate for those direct losses. Ocean Sciences Building, Box 355351 Seattle, WA 98195, uwpcc@uw.edu Carbon that is thus sequestered prevented from entering the atmosphere for 100 or more years can be key to addressing the climate crisis. But to understand the sea otters relationship with abalone, and with other organisms in the nearshore marine communities of the North Pacific Ocean, we need to go back in time. Read about my event of short engaging lightning talks in fulfillment of the UW PCC Graduate Certificate in Climate Science. To dwell in cold oceans, mammals must have developed ways to regulate their body temperature amid the chill. (C) duration (sec) Otter Water J2 J1 B7 B9 M3 D4 B8 4 8 8 12 12 16 20 y 63 75 84 91 101 110 115 We want to determine if water temperature is useful Since then, conservation efforts have allowed the otters to rebound somewhat, but some 2,500 miles (4,000km) of coastline in their historic range is still devoid of the furry mammals. Incorporating it would offer a clearer picture of what a warmer future holds in store. If sea otters return, however, their feasting can put the herbivores in check and allow the kelp to flourish once again. (1977a) identified several interaction web pathways by which sea otters might influence the behavior and population biology of kelp forest fishes, including direct Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. The loss or recovery of apex predators can have profound positive or negative ecological and socio-economic impacts. "When those kelps get dislodged they can travel and circulate on the surface for a 1,000km [620 miles]," says Hughes. Sea otters high leak capacity is not necessarily what theyre running all the time, Wright says, but probably can be activated when otters need to generate more warmth. The 1969 blowout of Union Oil's Platform A off the coast of Santa Barbara sparked the modern environmental movement, leading to the passage of several crucial pieces of federal legislation, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Digging would have stimulated sexual reproduction and increased seed set, an interaction that unraveled with otter extirpation. J Toxicol Environ Health. Rudolf, Wilmers and Rasher all say their work shows that future climate change research needs to factor in ecosystem complexity more effectively. We dont know if this is inherent, Wright says, or if this is something that quickly comes on after birth as a means of generating heat on demand.. The voracious echinoderms not only mowed down the kelp but are also tearing apart and devouring the massive, slow-forming limestone reefs on which this seaweed grows, Rasher and his colleagues recently reported in Science. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483). In contrast, diets and diet diversity of Bald Eagles changed considerably between the two time periods, likely reflecting a change in prey availability resulting from the increase and subsequent decline in sea otter populations. Staff login, Expand Climate Minor Testing Page Section. Like kelp, seagrass absorbs carbon as it grows, and stores much of that carbon in its roots. Similarly, Pace (1981) experimentally removed sea urchins in Barkley Sound (otter-absent region, this study) and found higher kelp population densities and lower depth . E-mail us atfeedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ. But researchers didnt understand the cellular origins of that revved-up metabolism for heat generation, Wright says. Careers. The eeriness did not end there: during a boat ride, one of Rashers colleagues pointed to a cove where he had seen hundreds of sea otters splashing in the frigid water in the 1970s. Sea otters can also benefit seagrass. webs. As sea otters declined (for reasons scientists are still trying to understand), their favorite preysea urchinsexploded in number. Indirect food web interactions: sea otters and kelp forest fishes in the Aleutian archipelago. We sampled 47 kelp forests, and found that red . Instead of roving about and attacking the holdfasts that anchor living kelp to the rocky ocean floor, creating urchin barrens, fearful sea urchins adopt a sit-and-wait strategy, hiding in deep crevices and eating only those pieces of kelp that break off and drift down. According to this explanation, by defending macroalgae (like kelp) from herbivores that attacked its living parts, sea otters allowed the macroalgae to relax its chemical defenses, making the pieces that drifted down to waiting herbivores higher quality food. In 1911, most Californians werent thinking about sea otters. In the late 1980s, the Service translocated 140 sea otters to San Nicolas Island, off Southern California. Everything we know about ecology is that as things get more complex, they change, Rudolf says. For the survey, 224 people participated out of a potential of 364 viewers (61.4%). The author granted permission for the file to be printed and for the text to be copied and pasted. As a nonprofit news organization, we cannot do it without you. Sensors Hint They Do. And the insulating properties of sea otters fur the densest on the planet cant fully protect them from losing too much heat. Effects of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Small bodies with less surface area don't lose heat faster; it's small bodies with greater surface area relative to their volume that do. Otters indirect effects on coastal ecosystems can also follow pathways other than the otter-urchin-kelp trophic cascade. A new study shows how the high metabolism of adult and baby sea otters begins at the cellular level. The flourishing of ecological thought in the 1970s was matched by a flourishing of environmental legislation. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. The theory is outlined in a paper released online today (September 7, 2012) in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by lead authors UC Santa Cruz professors Chris Wilmers and James Estes. The events are designed to directly align with the Aquariums mission, to inspire conservation of the marine environment. And similar situations likely hold true for other ecosystems across the globe. Other marine mammals have high metabolisms to cope with cold water, too, but they also often rely on large bodies and blubber to stay toasty (SN: 12/14/18). The events are designed to directly align with the Aquariums mission, to inspire conservation of the marine environment. While scuba diving around the Aleutian Islands in 2014, marine ecologist Doug Rasher saw little sign of the curtains of lush green kelp forests he would have had to push through decades earlier. University of California - Santa Cruz. "They miraculously don't eat the seagrass," says Hughes. It buffers it out a bit.. Epub 2005 Sep 27. I believe the speakers did an amazing job at articulating climate change through an animal lens, and they highlighted multiple ways that climate change will impact the marine environment and how sea otters can help mitigate those changes. Tour routes of great scenic drives on National Wildlife Refuges. New methods of reintroduction using juvenile sea otters who stranded as pups and were raised by surrogate sea otter mothers also show great promise. After becoming aware of this diminishing resource, the United States, Great Britain (for Canada),Japan, and Russia signed theNorth Pacific Sealing Convention in 1911 to protect sea otters and northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus). Sea otters also play a singular role in supporting kelp forests ecosystems in the North Pacific. The Lightning Talks: Sea Otters event occurred on Earth Day, 4/22/2021 from 6-7pm PT on YouTube Live. Direct and indirect effects of temperature and prey abundance on bald eagle reproductive dynamics. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Unlike many other marine mammals, they lack blubber, so they keep themselves warm by eating a quarter of their body weight in food a day. Otters' indirect effects on coastal ecosystems can also follow pathways other than the otter-urchin-kelp trophic cascade. After the event, there were >1,000 views of the YouTube video within 12 hours. Beyond species-specific considerations, any reintroduction effort must consider ecosystem-level implications. Perhaps win-win strategies for bringing back this keystone species exist. Contrary to our predictions, we found no effects on density of breeding pairs on four islands from 1993-1994 to 2000-2002. Your feedback is important to us. While diving in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the 1970s, James Estes, a marine ecologist with the University of California, Santa Cruz, documented that kelp forests without sea otters essentially become underwater deserts. Finding the cellular source of sea otters souped-up metabolism could help scientists better understand how other marine mammals cope with frigid water. Ecosphere 7(12) Article e01604. In order to maintain their high metabolic rates, the mammals must eat constantly. Consuming herbivorous urchins (genus Strongylocentrotus) enables kelp forests and the fish associated with them to flourish. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Medical research advances and health news, The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. She currently works as a research technician at the Seattle Aquarium where she assists with on-going conservation research projects spanning rockfish surveys, sea otter foraging, endocrinology, microplastics and coral reef monitoring. These currents are large and cyclical, taking the form of loops. In a 2018 study he considered how interactions among pond predators (dragonfly larvae) and their herbivorous prey (the tadpoles of gray tree frogs and green frogs) changed amid rising temperatures. But reintroducing otters is not a win for everyone. Get great science journalism, from the most trusted source, delivered to your doorstep. Vol 373, July 9, 2021, p. 223. doi: 10.1126/science.abf4557. The money to be made sparked a multinational fur rush, involving Russian, Japanese, Spanish, British, and American traders. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the southern sea otter as threatened. Click here to sign in with Such devastation underscores the urgency of restoring balance to the ecosystem by bringing the otters back. Heres how, A sapphire Schrdingers cat shows that quantum effects can scale up, how otters meet the challenge of staying warm at sea, Other marine mammals have high metabolisms to cope with cold water, eating 25 percent of their body mass in food every day. In 2012, a team of ecologists including Estes published a study on the potential for sea otter carbon sequestration in the North Pacific between the Aleutian archipelago and Vancouver Island. Sea otters have likely exerted evolutionary and ecological effects on North Pacific eelgrass meadows since at least the mid-Pleistocene (~600 to 700 thousand years ago) (19, 22). They are primarily found in kelp forests, which are underwater forest-like systems, home to many species. Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. Kelp forests have been found to sequester, or hold onto, carbon in the marine environment. Because sea otters (Enhydra lutris) exert a wide array of direct and indirect effects on coastal marine ecosystems throughout their geographic range, we investigated the potential influence of sea otters on the ecology of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. Our fish studies focused on rock greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus), the numerically dominant species in this region. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. Breen et al. Ecol Evol. "But animals the world over, working in different ways to influence the carbon cycle, might actually have a large impact. Links also do not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. In kelp forest systems, the influences of trophic interactions between sea otters and their prey spread through the interaction web via several pathways.