One deep-sea forest off Australia’s coast is one of the world’s two most productive, rivalling the Amazon in its capacity to feed – and protect – the world.
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Complex marine forests collapsing into flat turf seascapes
An international study led by The University of Western Australia has found that temperate marine ecosystems dominated by marine forests are collapsing into flattened seascapes of short turf algae across the globe.
The study, published in Global Change Biology, reveals that in Western Australia alone, thousands of hectares of underwater forests have collapsed into short carpets of seaweed turf.
Some of the other worst affected areas globally include southern Norway, eastern North America, the Mediterranean Sea and southern parts of Japan.
Lead author Albert Pessarrodona, from the UWA Oceans Institute and School of Biological Sciences, said marine forests were formed fromed by large seaweeds that towered up above the ocean floor, forming underwater canopies that house many species of fish, invertebates and algae.