Forests can be found all over the world, including underwater! Giant kelp forests grow in coastal waters where the water is very clear so sunlight can reach the sea floor. Kelp can grow up to 18 inches a day if the conditions are right, meaning kelp forests can spring up quickly! Full-color photographs and accessible language take readers under the sea to discover the kelp forests. Information about photosynthesis, habitats, and plant structures supplement what readers learn about plants in science class. Fun fact boxes give readers even more information about kelp and its role in the ocean biome.

Discusses what kelp forests are, what makes them unique, where they are found, and why they are important to animals and people.

Looking for his lost fish trap, Ben sees something dark moving under the water and dives in to explore what it is, and discovers a hidden forest of kelp and the creatures that live nearby.

Forests can be found all over the world, including underwater! Giant kelp forests grow in coastal waters where the water is very clear so sunlight can reach the sea floor. Kelp can grow up to 18 inches a day if the conditions are right, meaning kelp forests can spring up quickly! Full-color photographs and accessible language take readers under the sea to discover the kelp forests. Information about photosynthesis, habitats, and plant structures supplement what readers learn about plants in science class. Fun fact boxes give readers even more information about kelp and its role in the ocean biome.

Describes underwater forest creatures and the world in which they live.

Oliver looks forward to going diving on his birthday every year to see the underwater forest. But one year the underwater forest was gone. It had been eaten by hungry sea urchins. Will the underwater forest ever grow back?

The largest seaweed, giant kelp (Macrocystis) is the fastest growing and most prolific of all plants found on earth. Growing from the seafloor and extending along the ocean surface in lush canopies, giant kelp provides an extensive vertical habitat in a largely two-dimensional seascape. It is the foundation for one of the most species-rich, productive, and widely distributed ecological communities in the world. Schiel and Foster’s scholarly review and synthesis take the reader from Darwin’s early observations to contemporary research, providing a historical perspective for the modern understanding of giant kelp evolution, biogeography, biology, and physiology. The authors furnish a comprehensive discussion of kelp species and forest ecology worldwide, with considerations of human uses and abuses, management and conservation, and the current and likely future impacts of global change. This volume promises to be the definitive treatise and reference on giant kelp and its forests for many years, and it will appeal to marine scientists and others who want a better appreciation and understanding of these wondrous forests of the sea.