This can be done in a creative and captivating way, leaving audiences with one or two main take away points. Sea otters are lean and compact, the smallest mammals in the ocean, bobbing like furry barrels on waves. Sea Otters To Combat Climate Change? | PlanetSave Find out more about how we calculated this figure here. Because sea otters (Enhydra lutris) exert a wide array of direct and indirect effects on coastal marine ecosystems throughout their geographic range, we investigated the potential influence of sea otters on the ecology of Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. Small bodies with less surface area don't lose heat faster; it's small bodies with greater surface area relative to their volume that do. The content is provided for information purposes only. 1982, Estes and Duggins 1995, Watson and Estes 2011, Burt et al. And similar situations likely hold true for other ecosystems across the globe. That's because it can grow really fast up to 60cm (24 inches) a day. 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. Despite high attrition, reintroductions using translocated wild sea otters have resulted in about 35% of global sea otter abundance. Sea otters also play a singular role in supporting kelp forests ecosystems in the North Pacific. When kelp dies and washes ashore, carbon returns to the atmosphere during decomposition. The spreading kelp can. "When we help restore missing keystone predators, we make things right in a lot of ways before we even recognise what some of those ways are," Lilian Carswell, the southern sea otter recovery coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote in an email to the BBC. Conrad PA, Miller MA, Kreuder C, James ER, Mazet J, Dabritz H, Jessup DA, Gulland F, Grigg ME. By consuming sea urchins who are not similarly hidden, sea otters change sea urchin behavior. The large hind feet are broad and flipperlike. The influence of sea otters on coastal ecosystems is one of the most well-known and well-documented examples of a trophic cascade (the complex network of consumer-prey interactions, from apex predators at the top of the food web to plants at the bottom). Comparison of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury and selenium in feathers in bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), and comparison with common eider (Somateria mollissima), glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens), pigeon guillemot (Cepphus columba), and tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) from the Aleutian Chain of Alaska. The .gov means its official. PDF What makes the sea otter a keystone species? - FWS or, by Guy Lasnier, University of California - Santa Cruz. 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. When the sea otter returned and began to compete for these same shellfish, some saw the sea otter as an interloper, a destroyer of the oceans bounty. eCollection 2018 Sep. Wilson TL, Schmidt JH, Mangipane BA, Kolstrom R, Bartz KK. That mission has never been more important than it is today. Question: A marine biologist wants to test the effect of water temperature on the average dive duration for sea otters. Solved A marine biologist wants to test the effect of water - Chegg Indirect food web interactions: Sea otters and kelp forest - USGS These lightning talk events are widely accessible to all with an internet connection. A lightning talk is a very short presentation (5 minutes) and requires the presenter to be brief, clear and succinct. In 2020, the Seattle Aquarium transitioned its Lightning Talk event to a virtual format. of carbon sequestration through their positive indirect effect on kelp (Wilmers et al., 2012). The Importance Of Water Clarity To Otters - Humans For Survival Sea otters were once widespread across coastal waters in the Northern Pacific Ocean, from Baja California to Alaska, all the way to rocky reefs in Russia and Japan. The Seattle Aquarium lightning talks are recorded and available to watch for free on YouTube. The most widely studied and well-known pathway is from sea otters to herbivorous macroinvertebrates (primarily urchins) to kelp and other macroalgae (Estes and Palmisano 1974, Duggins 1980, Breen et al. Understanding the full impacts of warming requires factoring in the complexity of ecosystems. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Direct effects can be thought of as any change to prey availability via sea otter predation directly, while indirect effects can be thought of an any alteration to the broader ecosystem (i.e. Overall, I think the capstone project was quite successful and has received lots of great feedback. PDF Chapter 5. Ecosystem Effects of Sea Otters - Elakha Alliance Now, scientists are studying how these marine mustelids may also be climate superheroes. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In areas where sea otter populations thrive, kelp forests often flourish too growing at a rate of up to 60cm (24 inches) a day (Credit: Getty Images). Climate change-amplified temperature anomalies pose an imminent threat to coral reef ecosystems. To communicate the science behind these concepts to a wide and diverse audience, I hosted a virtual Lightning Talk event with my employer, the Seattle Aquarium. Beyond species-specific considerations, any reintroduction effort must consider ecosystem-level implications. are a small mammal in the weasel family. Vol 373, July 9, 2021, p. 223. doi: 10.1126/science.abf4557. We dont know if this is inherent, Wright says, or if this is something that quickly comes on after birth as a means of generating heat on demand.. Only a handful remained. Sea otters high leak capacity is not necessarily what theyre running all the time, Wright says, but probably can be activated when otters need to generate more warmth. The author granted permission for the file to be printed and for the text to be copied and pasted. 1982, Estes and Duggins 1995, Watson and Estes 2011, Burt et al. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines). The biologist attributed this improvement from their near-extermination just a few years earlier to the states total protection. Another challenge faced by sea otters is the need to obtain enough calories to fuel their extremely high metabolic rates, which requires that sea otters consume the equivalent of 20-25% of their .