Customer Reviews

Kelp Forests (Monterey Bay Aquarium Natural History Series)

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Kelp Forests is a slim (64 pages) paperback book published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It focuses, understandably, on the kelp ecosystems in Monterey Bay, although there certainly are elements of kelp forest ecology that are applicable to other kelp forests throughout the oceans.

The authors discuss the anatomy and physiology of a number of species of kelp (primarily the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera), the life history of these plants, and many ecosystem attributes of the kelp forest here: interactions such as competition, predation, and parasitism; and interactions with other plants and animals, in the water and, surprisingly, on shore.

This book refers often to the exhibits at the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. Because of this, readers may pass it by, thinking that it is nothing other than a tour guide. It is more than this, and interesting to all that wonder about the kelp forests. As I write this, the bay is being visited by 20 foot waves. In two days, I've seen one small inlet about 25 meters across go from a sandy beach to having giant kelp washed ashore in a complete ring approximately 2 meters in height. That is a lot of kelp! As I walked done to inspect it, I noticed a springiness in the sand; somewhere under the sand (I suspect) was another layer of kelp, now buried. That organic material doesn't spend its entire life in the ocean.

The listed price for this book is $9.95. It wasn't at the aquarium's bookstore/gift shop today, so perhaps it is out of print.