CFOS Juneau Seminar: Restoring underwater forests

December 3, 2020

The College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Department of Fisheries in Juneau will hold its weekly seminar Friday, Dec. 4, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. via Zoom. The talk will be offered by CFOS research assistant professor Schery Umanzor.

“Cloning, Hybridization and Thermal Priming to Restore Underwater Forests”

Kelp forests are declining worldwide. The implications of their loss and attempts to restore them are complex due to the high level of geographic variability and the number of different stressors that interact with each other on many occasions. Multiple techniques have been implemented to assist the recovery or repopulate sites where kelp thrived. Techniques include transplanting juvenile kelp from donor populations, creating artificial substrata on which juvenile kelp can settle, transplanting reproductive fronds, and outplanting lab-cultivated juvenile kelp. Overall, success worldwide has been limited so far, with long-term success reliant on continued maintenance (which can be cost-prohibitive). Still, efforts must continue as the cost of losing kelp forest could be catastrophic. In this seminar, I will share lessons learned from a Giant kelp restoration effort conducted in Baja California, Mexico.

Join Zoom meeting

Meeting ID: 931 5722 8696, Passcode: 432099

For more information, email Gabrielle Hazelton at gdhazelton@alaska.edu .