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Gauging threats to kelp and eelgrass

The Puget Sound Institute and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are leading a spatially explicit risk assessment of the current and future threats to eelgrass and floating kelp habitats in Puget Sound. The findings can be used to evaluate the distribution of burdens associated with habitat risk and inform management actions. As part of this project, a workgroup of six regional experts was convened to rate stressors (temperature, nutrients, vessel traffic, etc.) to kelp in Puget Sound relying on their own experience, understanding of published literature, and general knowledge of kelp biology and ecology. Experts also rated the degree of certainty of those stressor ratings in an attempt to reflect the current level understanding of these stressors. This exercise was conducted for three taxa (Macrocystis, Nereocystis, and understory kelps) in two life stages – sporophyte and gametophyte. The work leveraged and built on a recent literature review that identified the primary threats to bull kelp in Puget Sound (Hollarsmith et al. 2022). A report describing the results of the expert kelp threat rating is linked on the project webpage. A publication is in preparation. Funding was provided by the Puget Sound Partnership.