Associate Professor Malin Pinsky, from University of California at Santa Cruz, lead a workshop in May 2024 focused on kelp evolution and the potential for genetics to play a role in the resiliency of kelp facing multiple threats, including overgrazing and marine heatwaves. The key findings, published in a report released 11 September 2024, include:
● Evolution is a rapid, important, and often-overlooked mechanism to facilitate kelp
persistence and recovery;
● Management that maintains evolutionary options for kelp, such as higher genomic
diversity and a variety of locally adapted populations, is likely to have a better chance of
maintaining abundant kelp ecosystems into the future;
● Therefore, kelp genomic information can play an important role in the spatial planning of
kelp conservation and restoration, the selection of broodstock for restoration, and the
assessment of management outcomes; and
● Priorities to facilitate evolutionary resilience of kelp include spatial mapping of genomic
diversity across diverse environments, monitoring at sentinel and restoration sites, trial
restoration with diverse source populations, biobanking of kelp diversity, and public
engagement in discussions of evolutionary resilience and risk tolerance.
For more information, contact Dr. Malin Pinsky at mpinsky at ucsc.edu.