Environment, Ecology & Earth's biodiversity

[Sully]

Another example of a trophic cascade outlined in the book is that of the keystone species, sea otters. They saw the contrast between an island with otters (covered in kelp forests) and one without (barren and full of urchins). But why was this? Essentially whaling many years before eliminated the prey of orcas, they turned to otters and decimated them. Otters could no longer regulate the urchins who in turn destroyed the kelp forests. Reply