Encyclopedia · Group

Invertebrates

The reef floor belongs to the invertebrates: purple urchins that can clear a forest to bare rock and hold it barren for decades, sea stars whose loss to wasting disease rewrote whole coastlines, abalone and turban snails grazing the understory, lobsters and octopus hunting the night shift. If you want to understand whether a kelp forest stands or falls, watch the spineless majority — they are where the forest’s fate is usually decided.