We’re excited to share that the report from our workshop on “Evolutionary Resilience for Kelp” is now online here. Participants included the Monterey Bay Aquarium, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Ocean Visions, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, Audubon California, and U. California.
In a Nutshell
- Evolution is a rapid, important, and often-overlooked mechanism to facilitate kelp
persistence and recovery - Management that maintains evolutionary options for kelp, such as higher genomic
diversity and a variety of locally adapted populations, is likely to have a better chance of
maintaining abundant kelp ecosystems into the future. - Therefore, kelp genomic information can play an important role in the spatial planning of
kelp conservation and restoration, the selection of broodstock for restoration, and the
assessment of management outcomes.
- Priorities to facilitate evolutionary resilience of kelp include spatial mapping of genomic
diversity across diverse environments, monitoring at sentinel and restoration sites, trial
restoration with diverse source populations, biobanking of kelp diversity, and public
engagement in discussions of evolutionary resilience and risk tolerance.
As part of the workshop, Carrie Kappel also drew a beautiful poster illustrating key factors affecting evolutionary resilience for kelp! The poster now lives in the hallway of the UCSC Coastal Biology Building, with sticky notes so that new ideas can be added.
Media coverage
- Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network news item
- National Marine Sanctuaries Notes from the Field
Evolutionary Resilience for Kelp report now online