indirect effect of temperature on sea otters

Researchers have proposed that sea otters and their evolutionary progenitors could be indirectly responsible for evolution of the unusually large body sizes of the abalone species in the North Pacific Ocean. The main objectives of this project were to: In 2020, the Seattle Aquarium transitioned its Lightning Talk event to a virtual format. Unlike many other marine mammals, they lack blubber, so they keep themselves warm by eating a quarter of their body weight in food a day. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. With no otters around, sea urchins graze voraciously on living kelp. This has provided a natural gradient of sea otter occupation time across 20 different sites that allowed us to examine the direct and indirect effects of sea otter recovery. Elakha AlliancePO Box 704Siletz, OR 97380Info@ElakhaAlliance.org, Beyond species-specific considerations, any reintroduction effort must consider ecosystem-level implications. However, copper rockfish fishable biomass was negatively correlated with canopy kelp stipe density, likely due to the successional transition as sea otters return to an area from the disturbance-tolerant annual kelp Nereocystis to the perennial kelp Macrocystis. Quantifying the effect of otters might help ease some of the impacts to fisheries. A lightning talk is a very short presentation (5 minutes) and requires the presenter to be brief, clear and succinct. sea otter, (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, completely marine otter species of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Updates? 2018). The return of these playful creatures doesn't just transform their ecosystems, it can turn them into a powerful carbon sink. Our results provide further evidence of the wide-ranging indirect effects of sea otter predation on nearshore marine communities and another apex predator, the Bald Eagle. What participants desired most out of the event was to learn and connect. The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Learn more about structure and function of the surrounding ecosystem. This explanatory language, which accompanied the 2021 Appropriations Act, also instructed the Service to study the feasibility and cost of reestablishing sea otters on the Pacific Coast of the contiguous United States. This can be done in a creative and captivating way, leaving audiences with one or two main take away points. 2009 May;152(1-4):357-67. doi: 10.1007/s10661-008-0321-7. In the late 1980s, the Service translocated 140 sea otters to San Nicolas Island, off Southern California. The southern sea otter has reclaimed only about 13% of its historical range, and its population size is far below its estimated historical population size in California, about 17,000 (though it could be as low as 10,000 or as high as 30,000), a number that does not include the historical populations in Oregon and Baja California. If you liked this story,sign up for the weeklybbc.comfeatures newsletter, called "The Essential List". In the absence of sea otters, these areas would have an NPP of 25-70 g C m 2 yr 1 and biomass density of 8-14 g C m 2. Water transfers heat 23 times as efficiently as air, and small bodies with greater surface area relative to their volume lose heat faster, even when covered in fluff. Direct and indirect effects of temperature and prey abundance on bald eagle reproductive dynamics. Bald eagles and sea otters in the Aleutian Archipelago: indirect By the time the International Fur Seal Treaty was ratified in 1911, prohibiting the hunting of sea otters in international waters, only 13 remnant populations, each numbering an estimated 10100 animals, survived globally. By the submission of this blog, there were 1,336 views. --. Instead of roving about and attacking the holdfasts that anchor living kelp to the rocky ocean floor, creating urchin barrens, fearful sea urchins adopt a sit-and-wait strategy, hiding in deep crevices and eating only those pieces of kelp that break off and drift down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZmiqJ12Mms, Autumn 2021 Current Climate Change Research Seminar: IPCC AR6 WG1 Chapter Summaries, Winter 2021 Current Climate Change Research Seminar: A PCC/CHanGE Partnership, Spring 2022 Current Climate Change Research Seminar: IPCC AR6 WG2, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies. Her thesis focused on the impacts of a marine heatwave on coral reef fish communities on the Big Island of Hawaii. "So I'm talking sea grasses, marshes and mangroves those are going to be the big three carbon sequestration habitats, in my opinion.". Indirect effects of sea otters on rockfish (Sebastes spp.) in giant And in both these ecosystems, otters might have the added benefit of storing carbon. Sea urchins even stick around after slashing through kelp beds. Effects of predator depletion or recovery are frequently accompanied by time lags, which are often context-dependent. MeSH Koel TM, Tronstad LM, Arnold JL, Gunther KA, Smith DW, Syslo JM, White PJ. 2018). Find out more about how we calculated this figure here. By the submission of this blog, there were 1,336 views. Epub 2014 Nov 22. To fuel this metabolism, sea otters need to consume about a quarter of their body weight in prey each day. Like kelp, seagrass absorbs carbon as it grows, and stores much of that carbon in its roots. In fact, every species that feeds on these relatively chemically undefended macroalgae of the North Pacific may owe a debt to sea otters. One idea researchers have floated is to use money from otter-generated carbon offsets to compensate fishers for losses in their catch. Otters Show How Predators Can Blunt Climate Damage The key to that difference has to do with sea otters' voracious appetites. At the beginning and end of the event, I conducted a survey using PollEverywhere to learn more about the audience and to gauge the effectiveness of our climate communication. The money to be made sparked a multinational fur rush, involving Russian, Japanese, Spanish, British, and American traders. Part of the trouble is the gas-filled sacks along their stalks. Understanding sea otter effects through complexity 2023 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc. I believe the speakers did an amazing job at articulating climate change through an animal lens, and they highlighted multiple ways that climate change will impact the marine environment and how sea otters can help mitigate those changes. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Ocean acidification (OA) is another climate-induced process that could indirectly impact sea otters. DOI and the bureaus do not guarantee that outside websites comply with Section 508 (Accessibility Requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act. of carbon sequestration through their positive indirect effect on kelp (Wilmers et al., 2012). In temperate rocky reef ecosystems, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) trigger a cascade of direct and indirect effects driving transitions between kelp-depleted and kelp-dominated states. Kelp forests have been found to sequester, or hold onto, carbon in the marine environment. Otters indirect effects on coastal ecosystems can also follow pathways other than the otter-urchin-kelp trophic cascade. Chapter 5: Ecosystem Effects of Sea Otters - Elakha Alliance Official websites use .gov 2013). By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy The sea otters brush with extinction began far away from those rocky shores, in the Russian Far East. (Trophic cascade refers to the compounding effects of removing an organism from an ecosystem.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZmiqJ12Mms. Kelp, urchins, carbon, indigenous participation, and reintroduction are part of the answer. Because these proton leaks increase the amount of energy lost as heat, otters need to eat more food to make up for that lost energy, revving up their metabolism. Researchers have also uncovered other surprising indirect effects, such as sea otters beneficial effects on seagrass abundance and even its genetic diversity. The Importance Of Water Clarity To Otters - Humans For Survival are a small mammal in the weasel family. The sea otter had been hunted almost to extinction for its fur by 1910. Bookshelf But if those protons leak back over the membrane before being used for work, that energy is lost as heat. In temperate rocky reef ecosystems, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) trigger a cascade of direct and indirect effects driving transitions between kelp-depleted and . To dwell in cold oceans, mammals must have developed ways to regulate their body temperature amid the chill. The theory is outlined in a paper released online today (September 7, 2012) in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by lead authors UC Santa Cruz professors Chris Wilmers and James Estes. Simenstad et al. Their massive appetites can diminish fishing opportunities for commercial operations and subsistence-based Indigenous communities. Everything we know about ecology is that as things get more complex, they change, Rudolf says. Sea otters can greatly affect the environment they live in. part may be reproduced without the written permission. Although trophic cascades - the effect of apex predators on progressively lower trophic level species through top-down forcing - have been demonstrated in diverse ecosystems, the broader potential influences of trophic cascades on other species and ecosystem processes are not well studied. When present, sea otters eat so many urchins that the invertebrate's population stays low. You will be directed to the following website in 5 seconds: We hope your visit was informative and enjoyable. Our inferences were based on previously established effects of sea otters on kelp-forest ecosystems and patterns of covariation in sea otter density and the diets and demography of Bald Eagles. Other marine mammals have high metabolisms to cope with cold water, too, but they also often rely on large bodies and blubber to stay toasty (SN: 12/14/18). E-mail us atfeedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ. They wanted to learn about how they can help, to feel inspired, and to connect with other like-minded people. In 1913, California declared the sea otter a fully protected mammal. That designation made it a high misdemeanor to kill or possess them. She has also written for Science,Massive ScienceandAsk Dr. Universe, a science column for kids. Discover world-changing science. While diving in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the 1970s, James Estes, a marine ecologist with the University of California, Santa Cruz, documented that kelp forests without sea otters essentially become underwater deserts. "But animals the world over, working in different ways to influence the carbon cycle, might actually have a large impact. Sea otters eat sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus spp), which are voracious invertebrate herbivores that graze on kelp. 1982, Estes and Duggins 1995, Watson and Estes 2011, Burt et al. Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no appreciable enrichment of the 13C signature across the gradient of sea otter occupation time associated with an increase in the amount of kelp-derived carbon within fish. Sea Otters - Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory official website and that any information you provide is encrypted In contrast, in areas with otters, the kelp flourished along with the diverse aquatic community that feeds and shelters among the seaweed. Bald eagles and sea otters in the Aleutian Archipelago: indirect It feels like a ghost town, says Rasher, a researcher at the nonprofit Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Volker Rudolf, an ecologist at Rice University, also found that predators can alter the effects of climate change. Society for Science & the Public 20002023. Ecosphere 7(12) Article e01604. Click on the following key terms used on this web page to see their definitions on the glossary page: Sign up to receive our monthly email updates. During the event, we received 395 chat messages in the YouTube live chat and had 364 concurrent viewers at the peak. We found no evidence that sea otter occupation time or any other factor tested affected rockfish or greenling density observed on underwater visual surveys. Aboard the ship Svyatoy Petr (Saint Peter), Vitus Berings second Kamchatka expedition foundered in storms and wrecked near an uninhabited island, later named after Bering himself, who was buried there. The site is secure. Medical research advances and health news, The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. It buffers it out a bit.. At 2012 prices (US$47 per ton of C . However, it eventually began to grow more rapidly, numbering about 100 at the time of the most recent range-wide count in 2019. Skeletal muscle makes up 40 to 50 percent of most mammals body mass, so it affects the whole bodys metabolism. PDF Bald Eagles and Sea Otters in the Aleutian Archipelago: Indirect "If ecologists can get a better handle on what these impacts are, there might be opportunities for win-win conservation scenarios, whereby animal species are protected or enhanced, and carbon gets sequestered," he said. subsequent decline in sea otter populations in the central Aleutian Archipelago. The ancestors of sea otters diverged from freshwater mustelids about 5 million years ago, making the sea otter the most recently derived of all marine mammals. Join one million Future fans by liking us onFacebook, or follow us onTwitterorInstagram. Is that sea otter stealing your lunch -- or making it? MA-043219 to R. Davis), 1719 N Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036, Neuroscientists decoded peoples thoughts using brain scans, Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck, Here are 5 cool findings from a massive project on 240 mammal genomes, Fentanyl deaths have spiked among U.S. children and teens, Satellite data reveal nearly 20,000 previously unknown deep-sea mountains, Thawing permafrost may unleash industrial pollution across the Arctic, Ultrasound reveals trees drought-survival secrets, Seismic waves crossing Mars core reveal details of the Red Planets heart, Rocky planets might have been able to form in the early universe, Cosmic antimatter hints at origins of huge bubbles in our galaxys center, Black holes resolve paradoxes by destroying quantum states, These worms can escape tangled blobs in an instant. Read about my event of short engaging lightning talks in fulfillment of the UW PCC Graduate Certificate in Climate Science. University of California - Santa Cruz. This is what makes them a "keystone" species without their presence, the stability of the entire ecosystem can be lost. Killer Whale Predation on Sea Otters Linking Oceanic and - Science Blue rockfish in a giant kelp forest off North Monastery Beach, Carmel, California, 2022. The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The Services assessment reviews the biological, socioeconomic, and legal aspects of reintroduction feasibility and summarizes known information, key data gaps, and stakeholder perspectives. "They have this little radula that gently scrapes [the seagrass] and takes off all the epiphytes growing on it. As the marine mammal species that it protects return to ecologically effective population sizes, we learn what their roles once were, and more importantly, how they might contribute to ecosystem resilience in the future. And if otters continue to rebound across their historic range, that would increase this carbon store and all the ecosystem benefits of otters. Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies Registration occurred through the Seattle Aquarium website, and was advertised in multiple ways (facebook ads, Seattle Aquarium members, staff and volunteers, UW SMEA department listserv, UW PCC listserv, etc). In 2020, echoing language of the MMPA, the U.S. Congress recognized that sea otters play a critical ecological role in the marine environment as a keystone species that significantly affects the structure structure Something temporarily or permanently constructed, built, or placed; and constructed of natural or manufactured parts including, but not limited to, a building, shed, cabin, porch, bridge, walkway, stair steps, sign, landing, platform, dock, rack, fence, telecommunication device, antennae, fish cleaning table, satellite dish/mount, or well head. Sensors Hint They Do. Temperature-dependent viscosity had a significant effect on the carrying capacity and growth rates of consumers, as well as the average density of the top predator. Skeletal muscle thermogenesis enables aquatic life in the smallest marine mammal. In 2012, a team of ecologists including Estes published a study on the potential for sea otter carbon sequestration in the North Pacific between the Aleutian archipelago and Vancouver Island. Sea otters are a shallow-water species, spending their lives within depths where they can reach the bottom for food, so the sea otters range tends to hug the coastline, visible to and easily within reach of hunters. And the insulating properties of sea otters fur the densest on the planet cant fully protect them from losing too much heat. But how much carbon from kelp is sequestered is still unknown. Bald Eagles depend on nearshore marine communities for most of their prey in this ecosystem, so we predicted that the recent decline in otter populations would have an indirect negative effect on diets and demography of Bald Eagles. The rate of oxygen flow offers an indirect measurement of cells heat production. Oecologia. Sea otters can greatly affect the environment they live in. The Lightning Talks: Sea Otters event occurred on Earth Day, 4/22/2021 from 6-7pm PT on YouTube Live. Every print subscription comes with full digital access. But these perpetually hungry mammals don't only protect kelp ecosystems. By consuming sea urchins who are not similarly hidden, sea otters change sea urchin behavior. Physical disturbance by recovering sea otter populations - Science A. Estes, and C. A. Simenstad. Our field studies were conducted in the early 1990s, Producing heat this way helps the animals stay comfortable in 0 C Pacific waters. "Just in my own soul, it was an important thing," he says of his early observations of that stark difference. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Provided by The top-down effects of sea otters on coastal ecosystems result mostly from the direct limiting influences of sea otters on their macroinvertebrate prey and through the indirect knock-on effects on other species and ecological processes. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. Floating on its back, it opens mollusks by smashing them on a stone balanced on its chest. Unlike its northern cousin, however, the marine otter spends much more time on land, where it makes its dens in sea caves, along windswept beaches, or in gaps within rock outcrops. Epub 2008 Jun 3. The presentations needed to be accessible, with no jargon and no assumptions that the audience has any background knowledge in what they are speaking about. One of the easiest ways that anyone can support bird habitat conservation is by buying duck stamps. Enhydra lutris is the furriest animal on Earth, with up to 140,000 hairs on every square centimeter of its body meaning its hairs are 700 times as dense as those on a human head. Leaks in mitochondria the energy-generating part of cells generate extra heat and cause sea otters extreme metabolism, the researchers found. But since the return of the otters, the eelgrass has expanded by more than sixfold. Using data on the rate of kelp growth and its density at sites with and without otters, they found that the presence of sea otters across rocky reef habitat in the study area, covering 51,551 . Now, scientists are studying how these marine mustelids may also be climate superheroes. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. 2006. Reisewitz, S. E., J. In determining these effects, it's important to recognize that sea otters alter ecosystems via both direct and indirect pathways. In a 2018 study he considered how interactions among pond predators (dragonfly larvae) and their herbivorous prey (the tadpoles of gray tree frogs and green frogs) changed amid rising temperatures. This story was updated August 24, 2021, to correct the description of surface area's effect on heat loss. Contrary to our predictions, we found no effects on density of breeding pairs on four islands from 1993-1994 to 2000-2002. If the value of otter carbon banking is recognised by our human banks, maybe the mustelids will soon swim across more reefs and estuaries fighting climate change while they're at it. Sea otter | Diet, Habitat, & Facts | Britannica From the moment Berings men returned home to Russia with sea otter pelts, the species was in mortal danger. However, sea otters could still be indirectly affected via impacts to their prey. Simon Fraser University Library is grateful to be located on the lands of the xmkym (Musqueam), Swxw7mesh (Squamish), slilwta (Tsleil-Waututh), qcy (Katzie), kikm (Kwikwetlem), qiqyt (Qayqayt), qa:nn (Kwantlen), Smym (Semiahmoo), and scwan (Tsawwassen) Nations. And for the most part, they were right. Leaks in the energy-generating parts of muscle cells help otters maintain a resting metabolism three times as fast as predicted for a creature their size, researchers report in the July 9 Science. Questions or comments on this article? Significant changes in greenling diet occurred between the mid-1980s and the 2000 although the reasons for these changes were difficult to assess because of strong island-specific effects. Perhaps win-win strategies for bringing back this keystone species exist. The 1969 blowout of Union Oil's Platform A off the coast of Santa Barbara sparked the modern environmental movement, leading to the passage of several crucial pieces of federal legislation, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Sci Adv. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. That's because it can grow really fast up to 60cm (24 inches) a day. Sea otters stay warm thanks to leaky mitochondria in their muscles Effects of predator depletion or recovery are frequently accompanied by time lags, which are often context-dependent. Some of these effects are perceived as beneficial to people, and others are perceived as negative. FOIA of carbon sequestration through their positive indirect effect on kelp ( Wilmers et al., 2012 ). eCollection 2018 Aug. National Library of Medicine Clipboard, Search History, and several other advanced features are temporarily unavailable. The biologist attributed this improvement from their near-extermination just a few years earlier to the states total protection. The thick lustrous coat is reddish to dark brown. An official website of the United States government. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. We measured the abundance of sea urchins (biomass density), kelp (numerical density) and fish (Catch per unit effort) at four islands in the mid-1980s (when otters were abundant at two of the islands and rare at the two others) and in 2000 (after otters had become rare at all four islands). (1977a) identified several interaction web pathways by which sea otters might influence the behavior and population biology of kelp forest fishes, including direct On June 20, 1938, Life magazine published a photo of what it called one of the rarest sights on eartha large raft of sea otters near Bixby Bridge, south of Monterey. Sea otters feed mainly on sea urchins and on crabs and other shellfish. "They have a disproportionately large impact on the ecosystem relative to their abundance," says Heidi Pearson, a marine biologist at the University of Alaska Southeast. Although the indirect effects of sea otters are widely known, this example is unique because the food-web pathway transcended five species and several trophic levels in linking one apex predator to another. And when older roots die, the carbon becomes locked in the sediments, where it can take hundreds of years or more to convert back to its gaseous form. She delights in all things creeping, crawling and curious, and studies human-dog coevolution as an anthropology Ph.D. student at Washington State University. Many of the participants equated the term climate change negatively (i.e. Indirect effects of sea otter-driven trophic cascades vary across A new study shows how the high metabolism of adult and baby sea otters begins at the cellular level. who points to the many indirect effects warmer temperatures . 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