期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
卷 290, 期 1993, 页码 -出版社
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1897
关键词
sunflower sea stars; Pycnopodia helianthoides; purple sea urchins; Strongylocentrotus purpuratus; kelp forest ecology; predation
The recent collapse of predatory sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) due to sea star wasting disease (SSWD) has led to the proliferation of sea urchin barrens and loss of kelp forests on the North American west coast. Experiments and a model were used to test whether restoring Pycnopodia populations could help recover kelp forests by consuming nutritionally poor purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) found in barrens. The results show that Pycnopodia has a significant impact on regulating sea urchin populations and maintaining healthy kelp forests.
The recent collapse of predatory sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) owing to sea star wasting disease (SSWD) is hypothesized to have contributed to proliferation of sea urchin barrens and losses of kelp forests on the North American west coast. We used experiments and a model to test whether restored Pycnopodia populations may help recover kelp forests through their consumption of nutritionally poor purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) typical of barrens. Pycnopodia consumed 0.68 S. purpuratus d(-1), and our model and sensitivity analysis shows that the magnitude of recent Pycnopodia declines is consistent with urchin proliferation after modest sea urchin recruitment, and even small Pycnopodia recoveries could generally lead to lower densities of sea urchins that are consistent with kelp-urchin coexistence. Pycnopodia seem unable to chemically distinguish starved from fed urchins and indeed have higher predation rates on starved urchins owing to shorter handling times. These results highlight the importance of Pycnopodia in regulating purple sea urchin populations and maintaining healthy kelp forests through top-down control. The recovery of this important predator to densities commonly found prior to SSWD, whether through natural means or human-assisted reintroductions, may therefore be a key step in kelp forest restoration at ecologically significant scales.
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