I was at Salt Point State Park and saw sea palm kelp getting blasted by waves every 12 seconds. It got me wondering how it gets itself established quickly enough to withstand crashing waves. Even if there is a low tide, a strong enough holdfast would have to get established in less than half a day. Does anyone have any insight into this fascinating phenomenon?
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https://www.aquarium.co.za/news/where-does-the-aquariums-kelp-forest-come-from
https://www.aquarium.co.za/exhibits/kelp-forest-exhibit
(time to visit our aquarium again)
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The Wikipedia article is pretty interesting. I guess the spores can swim.
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It is wonderful how many plants, algae, and fungi have a highly motile life stage! The idea that animals move around and other macroscopic things don’t is widespread, but fascinatingly wrong.
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Kelp species produce an adhesive from as early as the zygote stage. As a single cell, the force of the waves on the kelp is not large enough to break the adhesion. Here’s a dissertation with some information about the adhesion: https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/download/pdf/24/1.0437221/3
Also, the force of the waves upon the organism will grow the larger the area exposed to the waves. So I think it is a reasonable assumption that during early development, the blade and stipe-area is minimised so that the holdfast has enough time to develop. But I couldn’t actually find anything regarding that, so this part is just a hypothesis.
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