Kelp Forests

Resources for Teachers and Students

Some Highly Recommeded Reference Books

• Baker, Jeannie, The Hidden Forest, Walker Books, London, 2000 - a great childrens book that explores the sights, textures, and diversity of southern Australian kelp forests.
• Edgar, Graham J., Australian Marine Life, Reed Books, Kew, 1997
• Andrews, Neil (ed.), Under Southern Seas - The Ecology of Australia's Rocky Reefs, UNSW, Sydney, 1999
• Fuher, B et al, Seaweeds of Australia, Reed Books, Sydney 1988

Web Based Resources

Marine Environments and Education

• http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/mafri/discovery - Marine Discovery Centre, Queenscliff school programs and resources
• http://www.mbayaq.org/ - Monterey Bay Aquarium in California also has kelp forests. The Aquarium has a range of materials on kelp forest organisms and issues.
• http://www.seacare.org.au/ - SeaCare is a community based group formed to facilitate projects aimed at benefiting the marine environment in Tasmania. So far activities have focussed on the restoration of Giant String Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera). There is quite a lot of information about kelps as well as about the restoration project.
• http://www.kelpwatch.tas.gov.au/ - 'KelpWatch' is a community-based research and monitoring project aimed at assessing the current and past distribution and health of Giant Kelp forests in Tasmania. The site has a great deal of information on all aspects of kelps.
• http://www.nre.vic.gov.au - Follow the links to Marine National Parks for some great movie clips on kelp forests
• http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/search_educational_materials.html - Materials including lesson plans on oceans and human interaction including algae.
• http://sustainableseas.noaa.gov/ - A series of expeditions to explore underwater environments using a submersible vehicle including kelp forests.

Seaweed Specific Sites

• http://encarta.msn.com - Encarta on-line has some good general info on algae plus useful links - type algae into the search engine
• http://www.aquarium.ucsd.edu/divein/KelpCam/kelpcamintro.html - Live Kelp Cam at the Stephen Birch Aquarium, San Diego with images of Giant Kelp
• http://www.dac.neu.edu/seaweedbiotech/ - Seaweeds and use in Biotechnology
• http://www.gardencentredirect.co.uk/Article/all-about-algae - contains links to many useful sites on algae
• http://hypnea.botany.uwc.ac.za/marbot/ - An excellent site for Marine Botany site with information on Kelp Forests and their Inhabitants - Suitable for teachers / senior students
• http://seaweed.ucg.ie/seaweed.html - University of Ireland site that specialises in seaweeds, including a database with pictures, information on cultivation and uses in foods
• http://seaweed.ucg.ie/firstyears/default.html - For a crash course in Phycology (Seaweed Science)
• http://www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/ - Harmful Algae - Deals with algae that cause blooms that are toxic to other organisms
• http://www.teachercertification.org/teach/algae-gallery.php - Links to galleries of Red, Green and Brown Algae