These forests under the sea are some of the most beautiful places on the planet. Imagine flying, like a bird or butterfly, through a forest full of beautiful and fascinating residents with the sun’s rays filtering down through the canopy above. These ecosystems are not only beautiful and interesting, they are valuable to humans and they are valuable to the planet. When viewed through the perspective of a city under the sea, kelp beds also offer insights about sustainability. Kelp plants are like buildings but very special buildings that are powered completely by solar energy and provide both food and shelter for residents. In this imaginary underwater city, there is recycling, public health, advertising and lots of other things familiar from our own communities. There are also lessons we can take from the kelp bed ecosystem to guide us in creating more sustainable communities on land.

1. Ambassadors of the Environment
Kelp Bed Ecosystem
www.oceanfutures.org/kelpecology
As Ambassadors of the Environment we will explore the kelp bed
ecosystem and discover lessons that can help us live more
sustainable lives.

2. We will use the “city under
the sea” metaphor to help
explain the ecological roles
of many different creatures
in the kelp forest. Just like
human cities where
everyone has a specific job,
kelp forests have power
plants, farmers, recycling
and waste managers,
doctors, and demolition
crews.

3. Kelp is essentially the “construction crew” and “architect” of the kelp
forest: it creates the “buildings” –the 3D physical structure—in which
countless organisms live and find shelter. Kelp is a type of brown algae
and is considered one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Given
optimal conditions, cold nutrient rich waters, kelp can grow up to 2 feet in
one day and can reach over 100 feet in its lifetime, creating homes for the
800+ species of marine animals that live in the kelp forest.

4. Kelp attaches to the seafloor
with a structure called a
holdfast. Without this, the kelp
might drift to shore and die, so
the holdfast is the essential
“foundation” of the kelp
“building.”

5. Kelp needs sunlight to grow, so it has gas-filled bladders, or floats, that
help it float to the ocean’s surface and collect as much sunlight as
possible. It therefore creates a vertical structure with a variety of niches,
from the surface to the mid-water and ocean floor.

6. Just like there are construction
crews in this underwater city,
there are also “demolition
crews.” Sea urchins munch on
the kelp’s holdfasts, sometimes
chewing all the way through
and freeing the kelp to float
away in the ocean currents. The
kelp can survive this way, but if
it washes onto shore it will die
and decompose.

7. In addition to providing the
“buildings” in the city under
the sea, kelp also serves as a
“solar power plant.” The kelp
blades reach out like leaves on
a tree to collect the sun’s
energy through a process
called photosynthesis.
Pigments in the blade collect
the energy in photons of light
and convert it into sugar, the
kelp’s food! When other
creatures eat the kelp, this
energy is transferred up the
food chain, eventually
powering the entire kelp forest
community.

8. The kelp forest, complete with its buildings and power plants, is home to
many “families.” This is a male Garibaldi. He has carefully cultivated a
nest of algae on which his mate will lay eggs (top left). The parents
fiercely defend their nest from intruders.

9. Should a predator such as a sea star encroach on their territory, the
parents immediately remove the threat to defend their young! We even
have good parents in this city under the sea.

10. There is also “advertising” on the reef, just like we find throughout
human cities. This nudibranch’s ad comes in the form of bright colors:
they indicate the nudibranch contains nasty, unpalatable toxins and
warn predators to steer clear!

11. Kelp forests, like human cities, are
even home to “thieves” and
“criminals.” The spanish shawl
nudibranch (top left) eats hydroids
(bottom right), which contain
stinging cells. What is really cool is
that the nudibranch can prevent
the hydroids’ stingers from
discharging and actually store
Having stolen someone else’s defense, them in its gills (the orange frilly
the nudibranch walks around in broad things on the top of the
daylight, naked and without a shell, nudibranch).
advertising itself with brilliant colors
saying, “See my colorful gills? They are
full of hydroid stingers and if you eat
me you will get a mouthful of pain.”
That’s quite an adaptation: using
someone else’s defense for yourself and
then using warning coloration to make
sure everyone knows it. Not only is this
efficient but it enables the snail to avoid
going to the trouble of making a heavy
shell.

12. Swimming through a kelp forest, one might happen upon a “doctor’s
office.” These yellow senoritas are the doctors and the gray blacksmiths
are their patients. Senoritas eat parasites and dead scales off their
patients, keeping them clean and healthy while getting an easy meal.
This is called a mutualistic relationship because both parties benefit.

13. Blacksmiths indicate they are ready for their doctor’s appointment by
standing on their heads! Just like human doctor’s offices, there is usually
a line, and each patient must wait his or her turn.

14. Kelp forests and human cities are very similar. However, unlike in human
cities, the inhabitants of kelp beds generally do not pollute, deplete their
natural resources, or destroy other ecosystems. Kelp forests offer lessons
that can help us make our own communities more sustainable.

15. The Four Principles
By understanding how nature
works, we can imitate it and
make our own way of life more
sustainable on Earth. In the
Ambassadors of the
Environment program, we
learned four simple lessons
about how nature works and
used them to brainstorm ways
to live sustainably. We call
them the Four Principals.

16. The Four Principles
1. Everything Runs On Energy.
2. There Is No Waste In Nature.
3. Biodiversity Is Good.
4. Everything Is Connected.

17. 1. Everything Runs The first Principle states that
EVERYTHING RUNS ON ENERGY.
On Energy Just like our bodies, cars,
desktop lamps, computers,
televisions, and appliances –
every organism in nature
needs energy.
Some creatures, like kelp and
plants on land, get their energy
from the sun. They harness the
sun’s energy to make their own
food in a process called
photosynthesis, and therefore
we call them “primary
producers.” They often provide
the base of the food chain in
their particular ecosystem,
converting solar energy into
chemical energy and thus
transferring the sun’s energy to
the rest of the ecosystem’s
inhabitants.

18. Here is a Norris kelp snail
grazing on kelp. This snail is an
herbivore that uses its rough
tongue to scrape off and eat
algae, converting the kelp’s
energy into snail energy.
Notice there is a hole in the
snail’s shell. Any idea who
made this hole, and why?

19. The hole was made by this creature - an octopus. The octopus feeds on
snails and other shellfish. In this food chain, the sun’s energy is converted
into kelp energy, then into Norris kelp snail energy and then into octopus
energy. But the food chain doesn’t stop here. So who would eat an
octopus?

20. A sculpin (left) would consider
an octopus a fine dish. So
would a kelp bass (bottom).
The sun’s energy is transferred
from kelp, to Norris kelp snails,
to octopuses, and finally to kelp
bass and sculpins! And what a
great energy source for the kelp
city to use! Solar energy is a
clean, renewable energy source
that never runs out!

21. Humans presently get most of their power from oil and coal-power
plants. In these power plants, oil or coal is burned to heat water and
create steam, which turns turbines that generate electricity. However,
burning oil and coal releases harmful greenhouse gasses into our
atmosphere, contributing to global climate change. This problem could
be solved by switching to renewable energy such as wind, solar, and
biofuel energy.

22. In a solar oven sunlight is
converted to heat and used for
cooking. Solar ovens are being
used in many developing
countries to reduce the cutting
of trees. This helps protect
forests, which can take up
carbon dioxide and reduce this
greenhouse gas in the
atmosphere.

23. Many homes and developments use solar panels to heat water. This saves
money and it reduces our use of petroleum and the release of carbon
dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. A win-win situation!

24. 2. There Is No Waste In Nature
The second principle says “THERE IS NO WASTE IN NATURE.” In nature,
resources such as nutrients are continually used and recycled.
Nutrients are fertilizer that plants need to grow and make food. In the
kelp forests, creatures such as lobsters eat detritus, the organic
“leftovers” or “dead stuff” on the seafloor. Along with worms and
microbes, lobsters ensure that organic matter is converted back into
raw materials (nutrients) for plants to use again.

25. Like lobsters, sea cucumber eat detritus. What’s great about them is what
comes out their back end is cleaner than what goes in their mouths! They
ingest a mixture of sand and detritus and poop out clean sand, thus
keeping the forest nice and clean while getting a meal!

26. Remember the food chain we learned about? This diagram summarizes
that food chain. It shows how predators like kelp bass or sculpins might
die, fall to the seafloor, and decompose to become detritus that’s eaten by
creatures like sea cucumbers and lobsters. The sea cucumbers also die,
decomposing into the simple nutrients that will eventually fertilize the
growth of new kelp, thus re-entering the nutrient cycle. In the kelp forest,
nutrients are used over and over again: There is no waste in nature!!

27. Today, humans tend to waste a lot of
resources. One thing we can do to
change this situation is compost.
Composting is where worms, bugs and
microbes convert organic waste into
soil, just as we see in nature. By
composting food leftovers, we prevent
garbage from going to ever-growing
landfills, where things take a much
longer time to break down and don’t
get the chance to return to a natural
ecosystem. Instead, waste is converted
into useful, fertile soil that can be
reused in a garden.

28. At Ambassadors of the Environment programs, participants sort their
meal’s leftovers to compost. The garbage goes into worm bins where the
worms eat this food waste and poop out nutrient-rich soil. This compost
is the perfect fertilizer for a garden!

29. The compost fertilizer can then be used to grow plants in an organic
garden, and in turn we can eat yummy fruits and vegetables! In nature
everything is recycled - there is no waste in nature.

30. 3. Biodiversity Is Good
Biodiversity refers to the
number of different species that
live in a certain ecosystem.
Biodiversity is like nature’s
insurance policy, because when
there are a lot of different
organisms in an ecosystem, all
of the important work needed to
keep the community healthy
gets done. If one species ails or
disappears, many others are
around to replace it.
The kelp forest is home to an interesting biodiversity of different
organisms, and each has specific adaptations to help it thrive in its
particular niche. This Wavy Turban snail, for example, grazes algae and
other types of organic matter on the bottom of the ocean with a hard
shell for protection.

31. The wavy turban snail has adapted a strong shell and a really neat trap
door, called an operculum, to protect itself from predators even if it is
turned upside down. Pretty clever since its soft body would probably be a
yummy meal to many hungry mouths in the kelp forest…

32. …like this hornshark. It would feast upon a wavy turban snail if it could
ever find one without its hard protective shell.

33. Biodiversity is good within a single species. Juvenile garibaldi (top) look
different from the adults (bottom) so they are not forced to compete as
adults at a young age. This diversity of form keeps the juveniles safer in
the kelp forest environment and therefore keeps the species as a whole
stronger!

34. This rock contains boring clams are among the demolition crews of the
coastline. They protect themselves by boring down into solid rock, creating
an even safer shelter than a shell. Their foot can secrete chemicals that
erode the rock, allowing the clam to rub its own shell slowly to create a
hole. And when the clam grows bigger, it will just bore some more until its
shelter fits just right. As clams bore holes into rocks, rocks break down more
easily, creating more sand, which replenishes beaches that lose sand to the
deep sea. A clam’s life is anything but boring!

35. Mussels are specially adapted for life on rocks. They produce adhesive
strings called byssal threads that allow them to attach firmly to rocks and
other hard surfaces. So when the surf is big mussels can withstand the
powerful force of the waves. Mussels take advantage of the waves washing
over them by filter feeding plankton through their gills.

36. 4. Everything Is
Connected
The fourth Ambassadors of the
Environment principle is that
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED.
Humans are connected to
nature, the ocean is connected
to the land, and everyone -
humans, animals, plants - is
connected to the future. Here
we see how kelp creates a
habitat, like a city under the
sea, where many fish seek
shelter.

37. This holdfast, that attaches
kelp firmly to the bottom, is a
prefect place for small
creatures to hide. There can be
thousands of creatures living
in a holdfast, including
anemones, sponges, worms,
clams, snails, shrimp and other
crustaceans, sea stars, brittle
stars, sea cucumbers and fish.
Some are juveniles that will
grow up and leave while others
may live in the holdfast for
their entire lives. Many species
are connected to kelp for food
and for a place to live.

38. Kelp forests are also connected to the land. When kelp is washed onto
shore it can become a valuable resource for creatures that live between
the tides and some of those creatures can be food for land animals.

39. This amphipod loves to munch on the kelp that washes to shore!
Amphipods (or beach hoppers) are great recyclers for the beach –
having more than 8000 species around the world, they help beaches
around the world stay clean by eating all the decomposing algae.

40. As the beach hoppers munch on the dead kelp, they break the algae
down and help bacteria convert kelp into nutrients. These nutrients
fertilize the growth of more algae, while the beach hoppers get gobbled
up by hungry sea gulls. Then when seagulls roost on land they poop.
Their digested beach hoppers become fertilizer for plants and trees
along the coast, supplying terrestrial ecosystems with valuable
nutrients. Sea and land, kelp and birds, beach hoppers and coastal plants
– they are all connected.

41. Sea urchins live on the bottom and eat algae, including kelp. In a
healthy ecosystem predators, like urchins, and prey, like kelp, are in
balance and both species survive just fine. But if the predators that
control urchin populations disappear, then the urchins can eat all the
kelp and create an ecological imbalance.

42. Important predators on sea urchins are sea otters, on the right, and
sheephead, on the left. Both of these species have been overharvested by
humans. With fewer predators on urchins, the urchin populations have
grown and this in turn results in less kelp and other species of algae. This
is not good for all of the plants and animals that depend on kelp for
their survival.

43. This is called an urchin barren. In the absence of predators, this
population of urchins has grazed down all of the kelp. As urchin
predators, sea otters and sheephead are important in maintaining
the entire kelp bed ecosystem with the hundreds of species live in it.
Everything is connected.

44. All residents in the kelp bed
ecosystem are connected.
Some species depend on others
for food. Some use others as a
habitat or place to live. Some
like senoritas are cleaners and
keep their patients healthy.
Some nudibranchs use other
species for their defense,
stealing stinging capsules from
hydroids they eat. Kelp beds
demonstrate the
interdependence of life.

45. 1. Everything Runs
The kelp bed
On Energy. ecosystem shows
the importance
2. There Is No of our Four
Waste In Nature. Principles. It
helps us think
3. Biodiversity Is about what we
Good. can do to live in
harmony with
nature and
4. Everything Is
create more
Connected. sustainable lives.