Why do we love kelp so much here at Kernowfornia Soul?
Cornwall has many essential vegetated coastal habitats including coastal oak forests, saltmarsh, seagrass and kelp. Due to our rugged, rocky, and high-energy coastal waters, Cornwall offers the prime environmental conditions to help provide and maintain thriving kelp forests.
So, what is kelp? Kelp is not a plant, but a photosynthetic plant-like organism called algae that creates extensive underwater forests. It grows in clear shallow, high energy water. Kelp grows on rocks, and is anchored by a structure called a holdfast. They have a leathery and flexible stipe (much like a super bendy and very strong tree trunk) and long fronds, which act like the leaves of a tree - by utilising the suns' rays to obtain its energy
Why is kelp so important? Kelp is an 'ecosystem engineer'. This is a very fancy way of saying that kelp takes greenhouse gasses (GHG) out of the atmosphere, where those GHGs are then 'fixed' into organic carbon in the ocean to create the crucial kelp structure. This is crucial because the kelp structure provides an important habitat of many juvenile marine animals, and enhances water quality. So kelp can reduce impacts from climate change, enhance biodiversity and improve water quality. This is why we love kelp!
Please stay tuned to learn more about these natural and beautiful underwater forest 'wonders'