The two losses are connected. But reintroducing otters is not a win for everyone. And a 2020 study found that the monetary benefit of sea otters due their restoration of kelp habitat and associated increase in fish stocks, carbon sequestration, and ecotourism value outweighs the losses to shellfish fisheries. In the late 1980s, the Service translocated 140 sea otters to San Nicolas Island, off Southern California. Staff login, Expand Climate Minor Testing Page Section. The video link was shared 53 times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZmiqJ12Mms. Rudolf, Wilmers and Rasher all say their work shows that future climate change research needs to factor in ecosystem complexity more effectively. The ancestors of sea otters diverged from freshwater mustelids about 5 million years ago, making the sea otter the most recently derived of all marine mammals. In areas where sea otter populations thrive, kelp forests often flourish too growing at a rate of up to 60cm (24 inches) a day (Credit: Getty Images). Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The find shows how otters meet the challenge of staying warm at sea and could apply to other marine mammals, too. But these perpetually hungry mammals don't only protect kelp ecosystems. "Just in my own soul, it was an important thing," he says of his early observations of that stark difference. It feels like a ghost town, says Rasher, a researcher at the nonprofit Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. The story was also updated July 23, 2021, to correct the description of otters' proton leaks. The survey itself showed that people learned something new that they had not known before. The Lightning Talks: Sea Otters event occurred on Earth Day, 4/22/2021 from 6-7pm PT on YouTube Live. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages. Only a handful remained. The ban on hunting in international waters did little good for southern sea otters in nearshore waters, which were administered by the state, and by then sea otter skins were selling for more than $1,500 each, about $44,000 in todays dollars. A version of this article appears in the August 14, 2021 issue of Science News. Its in their muscles. After wolves were reintroduced in 1995, though, they became the main cause of elk mortality and created a steadier carrion supply that helped sustain other animals throughout the cold months. Environ Monit Assess. We found no evidence that sea otter occupation time or any other factor tested affected rockfish or greenling density observed on underwater visual surveys. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. However, large numbers of sea otters can deplete shellfish populations, competing with fisheries for crabs, clams, and abalones. These include increasing or decreasing prey, changing competitive abilities, shifting feeding rates and altering trophic cascades. All rights reserved. Not only can a wider audience be reached, but speakers from throughout the world can participate. Their dense coat is one of two primary adaptations to maintain internal body temperature. The idea of restoring predators to blunt the impacts of warming has been simmering in ecology for decades. Being a small-bodied marine mammal in cold waters presents a real thermal challenge, says Traver Wright, a comparative physiologist at Texas A&M University in College Station. The large hind feet are broad and flipperlike. A handpicked selection of stories fromBBC Future,Culture,Worklife,TravelandReeldelivered to your inbox every Friday. Breen et al. On Second Chances: The Southern Sea Otter's Return to Ecological To fuel this metabolism, sea otters need to consume about a quarter of their body weight in prey each day. Their massive appetites can diminish fishing opportunities for commercial operations and subsistence-based Indigenous communities. Simon Fraser University Library is grateful to be located on the lands of the xmkym (Musqueam), Swxw7mesh (Squamish), slilwta (Tsleil-Waututh), qcy (Katzie), kikm (Kwikwetlem), qiqyt (Qayqayt), qa:nn (Kwantlen), Smym (Semiahmoo), and scwan (Tsawwassen) Nations. The Services assessment reviews the biological, socioeconomic, and legal aspects of reintroduction feasibility and summarizes known information, key data gaps, and stakeholder perspectives. 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. If urchin populations grow unchecked, they can graze down a kelp forest very quickly, called a trophic cascade. To get past this shark gauntlet and into safer waters to continue their recovery and return to ecological relevance, southern sea otters will likely need assistance. Even at a lower estimate, sea otter carbon sequestration can add up. To me, this is probably one of the clearest pieces of evidence saying, Heres how they did it, Williams says. Bald Eagles and Sea Otters in The Aleutian Archipelago: Indirect But researchers didnt understand the cellular origins of that revved-up metabolism for heat generation, Wright says. Climate change-amplified temperature anomalies pose an imminent threat to coral reef ecosystems. Sea otters also play a singular role in supporting kelp forests ecosystems in the North Pacific. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. Oecologia 146:623-631. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. They are primarily found in kelp forests, which are underwater forest-like systems, home to many species. Our inferences were based on previously established effects of sea otters on kelp-forest ecosystems and patterns of covariation in sea otter density and the diets and demography of Bald Eagles. Still, it was clear that a large oil spill could potentially cause the subspecies extinction. Nearshore Marine Ecosystem Research | U.S. Geological Survey They wanted to learn about how they can help, to feel inspired, and to connect with other like-minded people. Large species within carnivora are large carnivores. (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 Otters' indirect effects on coastal ecosystems can also follow pathways other than the otter-urchin-kelp trophic cascade. National Library of Medicine As a nonprofit news organization, we cannot do it without you. These sea otters were the only living representatives of the subspecies that came to be known as the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis). Official websites use .gov As the marine mammal species that it protects return to ecologically effective population sizes, we learn what their roles once were, and more importantly, how they might contribute to ecosystem resilience in the future. Before At 2012 prices (US$47 per ton of C . Perhaps win-win strategies for bringing back this keystone species exist. Researchers have also uncovered other surprising indirect effects, such as sea otters beneficial effects on seagrass abundance and even its genetic diversity. The Service terminated the translocation program and its associated zones in 2012. A new study shows how the high metabolism of adult and baby sea otters begins at the cellular level. To understand the direct, indirect, and relative effects of these drivers on ecosystem service production, we performed a comprehensive assessment of nearshore rocky reef food web structure. They are a, Digest climate science so that it is accessible to a wide audience, Articulate climate change through an animal lens, Spotlight the multiple ways in which climate change will impact the marine environment, Evaluate whether the science was communicated effectively. If only 1% of kelp between the Aleutians and Vancouver Island is stowed away in the deep sea, that's still enough to offset the emissions of 100,000 combustion-powered automobiles. Another challenge faced by sea otters is the need to obtain enough calories to fuel their extremely high metabolic rates, which requires that sea otters consume the equivalent of 20-25% of their . Wolves provide this kind of temporal subsidy, where theyre making food for scavengers that would be overabundant at one time of year and underabundant at another and smoothing it out, says Wilmers, who tracked Yellowstone wolf packs for four years. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form. However, copper rockfish fishable biomass was negatively correlated with canopy kelp stipe density, likely due to the successional transition as sea otters return to an area from the disturbance-tolerant annual kelp Nereocystis to the perennial kelp Macrocystis. Sea Otters - Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory Many climate impact studies on species have not adequately acknowledged this kind of ecosystem complexity as a factor, according to Rasher and other scientists. Indirect food web interactions: sea otters and kelp forest fishes in the Aleutian archipelago. Temperature-dependent viscosity had a significant effect on the carrying capacity and growth rates of consumers, as well as the average density of the top predator. We used hook-and-line surveys and underwater visual transects at shallow depths (2-25 m) across 20 rocky reef sites and a space-for-time substitution representing variation in sea otter occupation time. Such devastation underscores the urgency of restoring balance to the ecosystem by bringing the otters back. At locations where sea otters were present and sea urchins rare, the lower limits of giant kelp forests extended 3.7 times deeper than they did at locations without sea otters. Search for volunteer opportunities around the country, News about wonderful wild things and places, FWS is taking steps to mitigate climate impacts, Search employment opportunities with USFWS, On Second Chances: The Southern Sea Otters Return to Ecological Relevance, Alison Deary: Voyages of a LifelongLearner, Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge - The Season of New Life, 2023 - Weekly Highlights from the Asheville Field Office, Asheville, North Carolina, Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCA & CCAA), Coastal Barrier Resources Act Project Consultation, Coastal Barrier Resources System Property Documentation, San Francisco Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office. That's more carbon than that emitted from a million passenger cars for a year. Scientists still need to understand the reasons behind the otters disappearances, but Rasher Is hopeful. Whereas urchin-dominated communities supported more diverse fish assemblages than kelp-dominated communities, this was not a simple effect of the otter-induced trophic cascade because all islands supported more diverse fish assemblages in 2000 than in the mid-1980s. The top-down effects of sea otters on coastal ecosystems result mostly from the direct limiting influences of sea otters on their macroinvertebrate prey and through the indirect knock-on effects on other species and ecological processes. --. 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. A lock () or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. official website and that any information you provide is encrypted The final registration number was 1,005 people. The events are designed to directly align with the Aquariums mission, to inspire conservation of the marine environment. Bald Eagles depend on nearshore marine communities for most of their prey in this ecosystem, so we predicted that the recent decline in otter populations would have an indirect negative effect on diets and demography of Bald Eagles. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wilmers and Estes acknowledge that a spreading otter population won't solve the problem of higher CO2 in the atmosphere but argue that the restoration and protection of otters is an example how managing animal populations can affect ecosystems abilities to sequester carbon. "Right now, all the climate change models and proposed methods of sequestering carbon ignore animals," Wilmers said. Indirect effects of sea otter-driven trophic cascades vary across Solved A marine biologist wants to test the effect of water - Chegg 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). And similar situations likely hold true for other ecosystems across the globe. PDF What makes the sea otter a keystone species? - FWS Oecologia. Direct and indirect effects of temperature on the - besjournals Otters are responsible for the protection of the underwater ecosystem of Elkhorn Slough, a river estuary located near the Monterey Bay. In California's Elkhorn Slough estuary, eelgrass had nearly disappeared by the early 1980s due to declining water quality nutrient pollution from farms increased algal growth, smothering the seagrass. When the sea otter returned and began to compete for these same shellfish, some saw the sea otter as an interloper, a destroyer of the oceans bounty. Baby otters dont yet have the muscle mass to stay warm through these leaks, but their muscle cells generate heat at adult rates, the researchers found, showing that proton leak begins early. Temperature-dependent viscosity had a significant effect on the carrying capacity and growth rates of consumers, as well as the average density of the top predator. Consuming herbivorous urchins (genus Strongylocentrotus) enables kelp forests and the fish associated with them to flourish. The spreading kelp can. In addition to kelp forests, otters' effect on seagrasses may also benefit the climate. Volker Rudolf, an ecologist at Rice University, also found that predators can alter the effects of climate change. With no otters around, sea urchins graze voraciously on living kelp. 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). Those whose grandparents remembered there were once weasel-like animals living along the cold Pacific shorelines of North America thought they were extinct, or at least extirpated from the lower 48. Learn more about structure and function of the surrounding ecosystem. This explanatory language, which accompanied the 2021 Appropriations Act, also instructed the Service to study the feasibility and cost of reestablishing sea otters on the Pacific Coast of the contiguous United States. 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. That means it's pulling carbon from the atmosphere faster than a slower growing plant (though kelp is technically an alga).