Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Poor Steller's Sea Cow....
Sara Otterstätter@animalculum shared a very interesting article about the possible impact of the extinct Steller's Seacow on the Kelp forests, and what can be learned from it for a more effective conservation of them. You can find the article under this toot. And I can share an #artwork dedicated to the #stellersseacow . #extinct #extinction #MastoArt #traditonalart #watercolours #mixedmedia #illustration
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺How extinct #StellersSeaCow shaped #KelpForests
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-reveal-extinct-steller-sea-cow.html
Impact of the #extinct megaherbivore Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) on kelp forest resilience https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.983558/full
One of the more important and surprising findings was that including the Steller's sea cow in the model resulted in a totally different type of #KelpForest. Instead of kelp-dominated... it resulted in more of a balance between #kelp and #algae as more sunlight would have reached the sea floor.
Researchers reveal how extinct Steller's sea cow shaped kelp forests
For millions of years, the Steller's sea cow, a four-ton marine mammal and relative of the manatee, shaped kelp forests along the Pacific coast of North America by eating massive quantities of kelp fronds from the upper canopies, thus allowing light to spur productivity in the understory.