American ecologists from Sonoma State University in California found that intervention by sea otters could stop the destruction of the state’s marshes. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Nature.
Sea otters like to hunt striped shore crabs. These arthropods dig holes and eat plant roots that hold the soil together. If left unchecked, the crabs transform the marsh plains into a structure resembling Swiss cheese, and the land is then eroded by rain or surf.
This changed when sea otters returned to their natural habitat after almost a century of absence. In the past, these animals lived along the coast of North America from Alaska to California, but in the 19th century, due to the active fur trade, their number decreased to 2 thousand individuals.
Thanks to the hunting ban and habitat restoration, predators gradually returned to their historical habitats, but this took more than a century. The first sea otters were spotted in California only in 1984.
Ecologists also found that sea otters regenerate kelp forests by destroying sea urchins, which eat and proliferate underwater vegetation. According to the researchers, the results of their study demonstrate the effectiveness of species reintroduction (repopulation) in maintaining the health of natural ecosystems.
Previous scientists warned About the threat from the northward movement of white sharks, which feed on sea otters, among other things.