montereybayaquarium:aura218:dailyotter:Look, I Have TWO Sea Urchins!Via the California CoastOtter si
montereybayaquarium:aura218:dailyotter:Look, I Have TWO Sea Urchins!Via the California CoastOtter side of tumblr, please explain??Sea otters eat have to eat a lot (up to 25% of their weight in food per day!) in order to keep their metabolisms up and stay warm in the chilly ocean. Sea urchins are one of the things sea otters eat. That’s good news because left unchecked, sea urchins can decimate a kelp forest by munching up all the kelp. Healthy kelp forests support countless species, buffer coastlines from storms and sequester large amounts of carbon. So by eating urchins and keeping kelp forests healthy, sea otters are helping a bunch of other species—including humans!Here’s some more info on the important role sea otters play as ecosystem engineers: -- source link