Model of Laminaria hyperborea forests in the Nordic Countries

Point data on Laminaria hyperborea, collected from different sources in the Nordic countries, were used to model the kelp forest distribution by fitting boosted regression trees to the compiled data. The predictors were distance to shore, slope, curvature, aspect, salinity, temperature, light, current speed, sea ice concentration and wave fetch. The aim of the project was to model the distribution of kelp forests in the Nordic countries in order to identify their ecosystem functions and services, including their role in the carbon cycle.