The Santa Barbara Channel's kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp, the foundation species of rocky reefs,
""The amount of kelp on the reef changes through time in a way where the peaks and low points in abundance across several kelp forests are matched together," said lead author Jonathan Walter, a senior researcher at the University of California, Davis, and its Center for Watershed Sciences. "That's what we refer to as synchrony. It is related to the ability of systems to persist in the face of changing environmental conditions. A little asynchrony allows systems to be resistant to fluctuations and therefore more stable."
The study uncovers the role of synchrony in the beach food web, with broader implications as the climate shifts in ways that might change how linked ecosystems perform their functions.
Revealing synchrony's role in these ecosystems fills a key knowledge gap in our understanding of the connection of reef and beach.
"The kelp forest and the beach are both highly dynamic ecosystems," said co-author Jenny Dugan, a coastal marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "How the dynamics of those two ecosystems interact and behave is the key question here, especially with the beach system so dependent on the kelp forest.""
"Though a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon, synchrony and its implications are not yet fully understood."
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