KPBS: Researchers Warn A Warming Ocean Threatens Giant Kelp Forests
The warming climate is putting environmental pressure on California forests that have towered over the Golden State for thousands of years.
They are not the only forests being stressed by climate change, the region’s iconic underwater forests are also facing challenges. Those forests are populated by giant kelp, and there is one located just off the La Jolla shore.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher Ed Parnell didn’t have to walk far from Scripps Pier to find strands of giant kelp washed up on the beach.
“The root system is called the holdfast, it holds the kelp plant to the bottom, right there you can see that,” Parnell said.
They aren’t really roots that grow into the ocean floor and draw up nourishment.