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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Pip MooreORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2026.Kelp forests are among the most extensive and productive coastal ecosystems, yet they remain underrepresented in global conservation policy despite widespread declines driven by interacting global- (i.e., ocean warming, marine heatwaves) to local-scale stressors. At the same time, kelp conservation and restoration efforts are expanding rapidly across regions, but measures of success and syntheses tend to primarily focus on ecological conditions and trends, not on conservation and restoration actions. To fill this gap, we developed a comparative global dataset of kelp conservation initiatives based on expert-derived regional narratives from 209 participants spanning 35 regions with kelp forests. We applied a structured presence–absence scoring framework across six domains: conservation actions, restoration approaches, governance actors, conservation objectives, social dimensions, and funding structures, supplemented by regional expert knowledge to enable cross-regional comparison. Across regions, conservation was characterised by strong emphasis on monitoring (86% of regions), multi-actor governance (scientific institutions 94%, government agencies 86%), and protecting existing forests (66%), while active restoration was undertaken in half of the regions. Social engagement (66%) and links to fisheries and livelihoods (69%) were widespread, whereas explicit climate adaptation objectives were less common (17%). We identify a set of conservation profiles that describe how kelp forest conservation is advancing in different ecological and governance contexts worldwide. These findings highlight that scaling kelp conservation is as dependent on the social, financial, institutional, and policy systems that govern implementation, as it is on ecological knowledge and technical capacity. By bridging regional knowledge with global analysis, this study provides a framework for aligning locally grounded conservation action with global biodiversity targets.
Author(s): Eger AM, Verges A, MehtaFalkland Islands A, Pessarrodona A, Mora-Soto A, Bernal-Ibanez A, Smorygo A, Niese AM, Savard-Drouin A, Carlson AK, Put A, Falace A, Power AM, Asbjornsson AO, Schrofner-Brunner B, Moreno B, Reis B, Solovyev B, Turner B, Timmer B, Cevallos B, Lavoie C, Olguin-Jacobson C, Pantano C, Choi CG, Lagger C, Pineiro-Corbeira C, Harbison C, Gonzalez-Aragon D, Okamoto D, Bayley DTI, Claar DC, Jacinto D, Dolinar D, Bubnova E, Fica-Rojas E, Ryder FJ, Micheli F, Dickinson F, Juanes F, Arenas F, Wood G, Nishihara GN, Grebe GS, Moye GT, Earp HS, McNeill GD, Christie H, Stent HRT, Hayford H, Forbes H, Gestoso I, Aguirre JD, Twigg I, Pocklington JB, Freiwald J, Kubler J, Landschoff J, Padilla-Vallejos J, Schuster JM, Leclerc J-C, Whitty JM, Smith J, Garcia-Pantoja JA, Franco JN, Magnusson JT, Torre J, Avila-Peltroche J, Sandoval-Gil JM, Baum JK, Mayer J, Lorda J, Meyer K, MacGregor K, Schoenrock-Rossiter K, Gawne KE, Miller KI, Norderhaug MK, Lightbody K, Gamfeldt L, Dykman LN, Ennis LB, Wilkes LN, Gunnarsdottir L, Kandjengo L, Dunga LAV, Reshitnyk LY, Ivesa L, Malpica-Cruz L, Roy-Musor MR, Vivanco-Bercovich M, Lee LC, Palacios M, Wolf M, Sedarat M, Zwerschke N, Kumagai NH, Bax N, Zembsch N, Mieszkowska N, Arafeh-Dalmau N, Gagnon P, Brewin PE, Archambault P, Spector P, Horta P, Moore P, Francis P, Ternon Q, Cates R, Uribe RA, Forster R, Beas-Luna R, Barbosa RV, Harris RJ, Burns R, O'Callaghan R, Terada R, Buglass S, Davies R, Starko S, Barrientos S, Hamilton SL, Akita S, Vranken S, Benjumea T, de Bettignies T, Mumford T, Saucede T, Calvanese T, Campbell T, Kuwae T, O'Callaghan T, McHugh TA, Drakard VF, Sun Z, Hu Z
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Applied Phycology
Year: 2026
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 22/06/2026
Acceptance date: 17/05/2026
ISSN (print): 0921-8971
ISSN (electronic): 1573-5176
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-026-03917-6
DOI: 10.1007/s10811-026-03917-6
Data Access Statement: No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study. The code summarises the survey data and is available on request
