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...however,sea otters feed on the urchins and can prevent them
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The sea otter functions as a keystone species in the environment through its role as a top predator in the nearshore marine ecosystem. Sea urchins are a favorite food of the sea otter if they are locally abundant. By preying on sea urchins, a voracious consumer of kelp, sea otters keep urchin populations in check, which allows kelp forests to
Off the coast of western North America, however, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) feed on the urchins and can prevent them from becoming too abundant, thereby keeping the kelp forests intact.This ecological balance among sea urchins, sea otters, and kelps became upset during the nineteenth century, when the populations of the otters were virtually wiped out by excessive hunting for the fur trade.
Scientists investigating declines in California's kelp forests credit otters with helping to protect kelp - a species of seaweed - through their fondness for eating sea urchins. But not all urchins are equal to the otters, which zone in on the healthy nutritious ones and leave others behind.
Sea otters maintain the balance of kelp forest ecosystems by controlling populations of sea urchins, which are voracious kelp grazers. Since 2014, however, California's kelp forests have declined ...
Dietary Preferences - When it comes to the sea otter's diet, these animals are primarily carnivorous, feeding on a variety of marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, abalone, clams, crabs, mussels, sea stars, and fat innkeeper worms. Since sea otters don't have blubber, they must consume 25%-30% of their body weight every day in order ...
A southern sea otter with a purple sea urchin in Monterey Bay, California. (Photo by Morgan Rector) A healthy forest of giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, in Monterey Bay. (Photo by Michael Langhans) In this urchin barren in Monterey Bay, grazing by purple sea urchins has removed kelp and other algae from the rocky reef. (Photo by Michael Langhans) A healthy sea urchin from a kelp forest has ...
Like land-based plants and trees, kelp and other algae form the base of the marine food web. They provide nourishment to the grazing herbivores that feed on them, such as sea urchins and abalone. In turn, these grazers provide food for predators, such as sea otters and certain species of sea stars like the sunflower star.
By consuming sea urchins who are not similarly hidden, sea otters change sea urchin behavior. Instead of roving about and attacking the holdfasts that anchor living kelp to the rocky ocean floor, creating "urchin barrens," fearful sea urchins adopt a "sit-and-wait" strategy, hiding in deep crevices and eating only those pieces of kelp ...
In Central California, the mammals mostly eat sea urchins, which feed on kelp. If sea urchin populations grow too much, they eat kelp to the point of destroying underwater forests. But otters ...
Preliminary results indicate that sea otters show a strong preference for urchins in kelp areas over those in urchin barrens, however urchin consumption by sea otters increased after the 2014 urchin boom, and was focused in the kelp areas around the edges of urchin barrens: this would suggest that otter predation is serving to halt the spread ...