All photos © Doug Klug, shared with permission
For those who’ve walked alongside an ocean shoreline, likelihood is you’ve stumbled upon the crumpled, brownish-green tendrils of kelp washed up at excessive tide. Regardless of appearances, the otherworldly seaweed shouldn’t be a plant however fairly a sort of algae. Leaf-like kinds known as blades absorb daylight to photosynthesize, and gas-filled bladders maintain the buildings near the floor. Underwater, they develop in elegantly swaying forests, offering nourishment and shelter to marine wildlife. For Douglas Klug, these swish, undulating ecosystems present countless inspiration and shocking interactions.
Based mostly in Santa Barbara, California, Klug is an avid scuba diver and photographer who focuses on submarine life, highlighting colleges of fish and myriad textures as they work together within the rippling daylight. Many of the kelp forests he explores are inside Channel Islands Nationwide Park close to the place he lives. “All my diving is inside what is taken into account ‘leisure’ limits at depths shallower than 130 toes. The water is chilly, and the ocean has sturdy vitality known as surge, so the circumstances could be difficult to work in,” he tells Colossal.
Klug pays consideration to adjustments within the ecosystem, noting that “kelp forests themselves live, thriving environments that may wax and wane with currents, water temperature, or different elements,” offering clues to the ocean’s well being and the trickle-down impact for animals and people that depend on its meals sources. Not solely is a few of the seaweed edible, it offers secure haven and nurseries for fish, whereas massive concentrations of the algae are highly effective carbon sinks capable of sequester hundreds of thousands of kilos of carbon dioxide. As a result of results of the local weather disaster and human inference with fragile aquatic ecosystems, the forests are struggling.
Klug shines a light-weight on the marine world with the hope that viewers will acquire understanding and appreciation for crucial habitats. “I really like taking pictures the kelp forests as a result of it lets me spotlight one among nature’s most vital assets,” he says. “Kelp forests are vital to all of us as they contribute to our world’s well being and stability.” Together with different wildlife like seals, sea lions, and nudibranchs—a bunch of significantly colourful, tiny molluscs—the ocean challenges the artist to search out the suitable circumstances for lighting and thrilling encounters, and to be in the suitable place on the proper time.
Discover extra of Klug’s nature pictures on his web site and Flickr.
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