Kelp Forest
By Christian
Location
Kelp forests can be found on the west coast North and South America. They can also be found around Southern Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, North Atlantic, Coast of Canada, and North East Asia.
Essentials
In the kelp forests the average temperature is between 42-72° F and the average salinity us high due to cold temperatures. For the trip it is recommended that you bring scuba gears if you intend on diving. This includes masks, snorkel, fins, scuba tank, wetsuits, dry suits, etc. It is also recommended to bring under water cameras to take memorable pictures.
What you should expect to see
The first thing you should see when diving is kelp. If you don't see kelp then your in the wrong place. At the ocean floor you should see the kelp attached to the ground with holdfasts. You might see an abundance of sea urchins eating away at everything. There will be crabs and other species eating the sea urchins preventing them from over populating. There will be lots of different fishes including the garibaldi fish, the mola mola fish, manta rays, and more.
All About Science
Kelp forests in the channel islands get both warm and cold water creating under water currents. The mixture of the warm and cold water bring in a diversity of under water creatures. Due to the kelp, the currents are weakened. In kelp forests there are an abundance of sea urchins. If there is too much the urchins will start to eat away everything and leaving nothing for other species. The sea urchins will eat the kelp holdfasts. In kelp forests there is an abundance of kelp which is used in tooth paste, ice cream, and more.
Kelp forests are affected by humans. Humans are harvesting kelp which is affecting kelp forests. Without the kelp, the food web is affected due to fact that kelp is a producer which is at the beginning of the food web. Kelp also provides a natural home for the fishes, without it they are vulnerable. To stop this from happening humans need to decrease the amount of kelp they harvest to prevent from harvesting too much