Giant kelp forests at critical light thresholds show compromised ecological resilience to environmental and biological drivers

Highlights

• Kelp forests have been impacted worldwide but with few generalities between cases.
• Light defines photoautotroph distribution, but thresholds are poorly defined.
• Here I explore the impacts of gradients of suspended sediments on kelp bed ecology.
• Identified thresholds of light caused a shift in a range of ecological metrics.
• Kelps and fucoids responded to similar thresholds but through different mechanisms.

Keywords

Kelp forest, Sedimentation, Land-use change, Threshold, Turbidity, Biodiversity, Urchins, Macrocystis pyrifera