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Littoral Forests
Records of Aquatic Plants that turn Sunlight and Carbon Dioxide into Biomass
Littoral Forests - 2021, a series of 15 mixed media works on paper, each 42" x 21"
Oceans and lakes are bordered by littoral zones where submerged water plants photosynthesize, i.e., eat sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce biomass. These nearshore aquatic ecosystems provide food and shelter for many animals and plants- yet they are also very sensitive to changes in water temperature.
One impressive and depressing example of how climate change may affect marine ecosystems are the kelp beds of Northern California. Until recently, extensive kelp forests rose up from the ocean floor over 150 feet high to the Pacific's surface along much of the coastline. They provided a habitat for sea otters, fish, algae, snails, to name a few. Since 2008 kelp beds began to decline in many areas. The gradual temperature rise in near-shore waters and a wasting disease killing off the sunflower sea star are the main causes. In the kelp bed ecosystem the sunflower sea star had become the main predator of sea urchins, which feed on kelp. They chew through the kelp's strong holdfast; the unanchored plants rise to the surface and wash onto the shore. The long bulbous stripes entangled with large fronds die in the sun while part of the coastal ocean floor turns into a waste land.
Historically the sea otter had also kept sea urchins under control, but due to over hunting in the 1800s sea otter colonies along the Northern California coast shrank significantly often leaving sea urchins without predators.
When I heard of recent studies showing that kelp absorbs twice as much carbon dioxide as originally thought and eventually stores it as biomass on the ocean floor, thus sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide, I became fascinated by emerging global efforts to help reestablish kelp forests as one way to counter climate change. I looked more closely into kelp, algae and sea weeds, their dissemination process and growing habits. On my long walks along the beaches of Point Reyes I collected ocean matter. In the studio I used the plants to create a series of mixed media cyanotypes that involved capturing the plant's shadows by exposure to sunlight, followed by layering fields of watercolor, drawing and tracing outlines.
With the two series Littoral Forests I want to instill in the viewer the wonderment of underwater worlds seldom seen, worlds that we may lose due to wo*man made climate change, while they may become an essential tool for our survival on this amazing planet.
Christel Dillbohner, Berkeley 2022
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