https://www.futurity.org/sea-otters-salt-marshes-conservation-3173872/
"Remarkable changes have occurred in the landscape as these adorable animals
recolonize their former habitat in the Elkhorn Slough, a salt marsh-dominated
coastal estuary in Monterey County.
The erosion of creek banks slowed on average by 69% after the sea otter
population fully recovered at a time when rising levels, stronger tidal
currents, and nutrient pollution should be causing the opposite.
Marsh and streamside vegetation is rebounding and putting down densely matted
root systems that can increasingly stand firm against flooding and surging
waves. These features, essential for making the estuary resilient, are on the
mend in large part due to the sea otters’ insatiable appetite for herbivorous
marsh crabs, according to a study appearing in
Nature.
“These top predators can have a large effect on the habitats that they exist
in. But we don’t know what those effects are unless we directly test them,”
says coauthor Kathryn Beheshti, an assistant researcher at the University of
California, Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute.
Crabs are an important part of the slough ecosystem, but too many of them can
ruin the wetland’s integrity.
“Crabs eat salt marsh roots, burrow into salt marsh sediments, and over time
can cause a marsh to erode and collapse. This had been happening at Elkhorn
Slough for decades until sea otters recolonized the estuary in the mid-1980s
and expanded into salt marshes over the last decade,” says lead author Brent
Hughes, an associate professor of biology at Sonoma State University.
“Our study—which draws on field experiments, modeling and before-and-after
measurements—underscores the far-reaching benefits that can cascade through an
ecosystem when a top predator is reintroduced,” says senior author Brian
Silliman, a professor at Duke University. “It begs the question: In how many
other ecosystems worldwide could the reintroduction of a former top predator
yield similar benefits?”"
Via Rixty Dixet.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
