Turf wars: Algal replacement restructures food webs

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Summary: ...brown alga is an important habitat and food source for myriad marine species. Unfortunately, warming oceans have rapidly caused kelp forests around the world to disappear; in some areas, red “turf” algae are taking their place. A new study in Science Advances finds that you can’t just substitute one alga for another—the shift alters the food web from the bottom up. The researchers behind the work wondered from where cunner and pollock fish—two common kelp forest predators—derived their energy. To find out, they examined carbon and nitrogen in the tissues of fish caught off the coasts of northeastern Maine...where 80% of kelp forests have collapsed. While the fish in kelp forests got most of their energy from kelp, fish in turf reefs didn’t just switch to eating the turf—they turned to phytoplankton for their main food source instead. The finding shows how important kelp is as a food source, and hints at how its loss could affect the entire ecosystem.... '

Paper, Kelp forest loss and emergence of turf algae reshapes energy flow to predators in a rapidly warming ecosystem,  by Dara S. Yiu et al: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw7396. 

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