Restoring and valuing global kelp forest ecosystems

Kelp forests cover ~30% of the world’s coastline and are the largest biogenic marine habitat on earth. Across their distribution, kelp forests are essential for the healthy functioning of marine ecosystems and consequently underpin many of the benefits coastal societies receive from the ocean. Concurrently, rising sea temperatures, overgrazing by marine herbivores, sedimentation, and water pollution have caused kelp forests populations to decline in most regions across the world. Effectively managing the response to these declines will be pivotal to maintaining healthy marine ecosystems and ensuring the benefits they provide are equitably distributed to coastal societies. In Chapter 1, I review how the marine management paradigm has shifted from protection to restoration as well as the consequences of this shift. Chapter 2 introduces the field of kelp forest restoration and provides a quantitative and qualitative review of 300 years of kelp forest restoration, exploring the genesis of restoration efforts, the lessons we have learned about restoration, and how we can develop the field for the future. Chapter 3 is a direct answer to the question faced while completing Chapter 2. This chapter details the need for a standardized marine restoration reporting framework, the benefits that it would provide, the challenges presented by creating one, and the solutions to these problems. Similarly, Chapter 4 is a response to the gaps discovered in Chapter 2. Chapter 4 explores how we can use naturally occurring positive species interactions and synergies with human activities to not only increase the benefits from ecosystem restoration but increase the probability that restoration is successful. The decision to restore an ecosystem or not is informed by the values and priorities of the society living in or managing that ecosystem. Chapter 5 quantifies the fisheries production, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration potential of five key genera of globally distributed kelp forests. I conclude the thesis by reviewing the lessons learned and the steps required to advance the field kelp forest restoration and conservation.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Eger, Aaron ; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0687-7340

• kelp
• restoration
• conservation
• reef
• ecological economics
• kelp forest
• ecosystem services
• marine
• anzsrc-for: 4104 Environmental management
• anzsrc-for: 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology)
• anzsrc-for: 319902 Global change biology

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY 4.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/24671

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/100964