Abstract
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Community engagement, art-science collaborations,and science outreach all cultivated marine stewardship for local kelp forests and helped generate resources for their restoration.
• The installation of mesh mats on bare rock with adults tied to the mats can be an effective way to transplant adult kelp in relatively high wave environments.
Crayweed (Phyllospora comosa) is one of Australia’s most ecologically important seaweeds, which forms extensive underwater forests along ~5,100 km of coastline in south-eastern Australia and around Tasmania. As a foundation
species, crayweed supports a unique ecological community that includes two of Australia’s most valuable fisheries: abalone and rock lobster (or crayfish, from which it gets its name). Crayweed completely disappeared from 70 km of Sydney’s metropolitan coastline in the 1980s, although scientists only documented this in the mid 2000s. The disappearance was linked to major sewage pollution at the time. Although water quality improved dramatically along the city’s shoreline following the installation of deep ocean outfalls in the 1990s, populations of crayweed did not re-establish in the region, resulting in a persistent fragmentation of this species’ distribution.
• Community engagement, art-science collaborations,and science outreach all cultivated marine stewardship for local kelp forests and helped generate resources for their restoration.
• The installation of mesh mats on bare rock with adults tied to the mats can be an effective way to transplant adult kelp in relatively high wave environments.
Crayweed (Phyllospora comosa) is one of Australia’s most ecologically important seaweeds, which forms extensive underwater forests along ~5,100 km of coastline in south-eastern Australia and around Tasmania. As a foundation
species, crayweed supports a unique ecological community that includes two of Australia’s most valuable fisheries: abalone and rock lobster (or crayfish, from which it gets its name). Crayweed completely disappeared from 70 km of Sydney’s metropolitan coastline in the 1980s, although scientists only documented this in the mid 2000s. The disappearance was linked to major sewage pollution at the time. Although water quality improved dramatically along the city’s shoreline following the installation of deep ocean outfalls in the 1990s, populations of crayweed did not re-establish in the region, resulting in a persistent fragmentation of this species’ distribution.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Kelp Restoration Guidebook |
| Subtitle of host publication | LESSONS LEARNED FROM KELP RESTORATION PROJECTS AROUND THE WORLD |
| Editors | Jenn Caselle, Bryan DeAngelis, Norah Eddy, Aaron M. Eger, Mary Gleason, Cayne Layton, Tristin Anoush McHugh |
| Publisher | The Nature Conservancy |
| Chapter | Project 2 |
| Pages | 57-59 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- kelp forests
- Crayweed
- Phyllospora comosa
- seaweeds
- fisheries
- underwater forests
- Australia