Kelp Forests are underwater ecosystems formed in shallow water by the dense growth of several different species known as kelps, which are large brown algae. Among the algae, kelp forests have earned the nickname “blue carbon” for their superpower to remove more than 170 metric tons of the carbon released into the air each year.
Kelp sporophytes release millions of spores. These tiny spores then grow into tiny male or female gametophytes, which can produce either sperm or eggs. After fertilization occurs, the free-floating embryos quickly grip the ocean floor and develop into mature plants.
Kelp forests are found along rocky shorelines, mainly on the Pacific coast, stretching from Alaska to Baja California. They grow further from the tropics than sea grass beds, coral reefs and mangrove forests, meaning that they don’t overlap with those ecosystems. Kelps develop in cold, nutrient-rich waters. They attach to the seafloor and eventually grow to the water’s surface where they rely on sunlight to generate food and energy.
Kelp forests of the Channel Islands experience both warm currents from the south and cold-water current from the north. This mixing of current creates a highly productive system and a diversity of organisms that can only be found over the California coast. Similar to the above ecosystems, they are very important for biodiversity as they provide an underwater habitat to thousands of marine species of fish, invertebrates and other algae. Also, they form a dense barrier between coastlines and damaging waves, providing food and shelter to thousands of marine animal species, as well as other algae.

There are numerous natural impacts as well as human activities that affect kelp forest environments. Diverse natural factors that influence kelp forest stability are grazing by fishes, sea urchins (Sea urchins can destroy entire kelp forests at a rate of 30 feet (9 m) per month by moving in herds) and crustaceans, plant competition, and storms. Human activities also impact the health of kelp forests through kelp harvesting, coastal development, sedimentation, pollution, and fishing.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, The Nature Conservancy, University of California Los Angeles, and the University of California Santa Barbara have launched the world’s largest map of kelp forest canopies extending from Baja California, Mexico to the Oregon-Washington border. This then developed into a cost-effective, innovative online visualization tool to improve kelp forest mapping and monitoring, which is now housed on https://kelpwatch.org/ as Kelpwatch.

Kelpwatch is a web tool that uses machine learning and remote sensing science to display the kelp forest canopies and analyze the changes it undergoes over time. This mapping tool has been launched amid major, unprecedented declines in many kelp forest ecosystems, which provide crucial services to both humans and nature.

References
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-world-largest-kelp-forest-canopies.html
https://onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/kelp-forest-facts
https://oceana.org/marine-life/kelp-forest/
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/oceans/kelp-forests.htm
https://voices.uchicago.edu/dfiwellnews/2019/09/04/surprising-help-from-kelp-and-the-bacteria-who-support-them/

Image Courtesy
https://onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/kelp-forest-facts
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-world-largest-kelp-forest-canopies.html