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A vividly illustrated guide to the seaweeds that shape Southern California’s diverse coastal life.
Beneath the ocean's surface lies a world of astonishing beauty and biodiversity, where glistening seaweeds create shimmering gardens that underpin a thriving network of marine life.
Churchill's Illustrated Guide to Southern California Seaweeds revels in the beauty of these fascinating algae and details each species’ role in intertidal ecosystems from the Channel Islands to Los Angeles all the way to San Diego and Baja California. More than 60 detailed, hand-painted illustrations bring each seaweed's marvelous forms into full view:
- Red sea grapes float in colorful clusters of edible bubbles
- Glistening sea lettuce feeds intertidal marine life—and humans as well
- Towering kelp forests lessen wave surge and protect coastlines from erosion
- Billowing seaweed blades seek sunlight to capture carbon and produce oxygen
Whether you're tide pooling, snorkeling, diving, kayaking, or beachcombing, this guide will help you to recognize the gyrating stipes in the fathoms below and the seaswept fronds unfurled on the shore—and to appreciate what makes these often overlooked specimens among the ocean's greatest ecosystem engineers.
Madison Churchill is a water woman, artist, and naturalist. She grew up near the Salish Sea in Washington state, where she fell in love with kelp and seaweed ecosystems. She is a cold-water diver through and through, and she loves sharing her passion for marine life with anyone who will listen. Churchill is a painter and scientific illustrator, and she enjoys collecting seaweed to press and cyanotype. She holds a BA in environmental policy from Western Washington University and an MAS in marine biodiversity and conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Introduction
- How to Look at Seaweed
Red Seaweeds
Green Seaweeds
Brown Seaweeds
- The Kelps
Species List
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Sources and Further Learning
About the Author