Kelps also provide extensive substrata for colonising organisms, ameliorate conditions for understorey assemblages, and provide three-dimensional habitat structure for a vast array of marine plants and animals, including a number of commercially important species.
Ordovician-Silurian extinction (about 444 million years ago), which included about 25 percent of marine families and 85 percent of marine species, with brachiopods, conodonts, bryozoans, and trilobites suffering greatly.
"It is clear from reports that the recent earthquakes have impacted upon wildlife, including seals, penguins and seabirds," said Ian Angus, DOC's manager of marine species and threats.
For example, changing marine conditions can shift traditional ranges of marine species and promote or compromise their prevalence, and can alter coastal environments by changing weather patterns (including severe weather events) and shifting the coastline.
Jellies have survived five mass extinctions, including the "Great Dying" (the Permian-Triassic extinction), which wiped out up to 96% of marine species and 70% of life on Earth.
About 85 per cent of marine species were killed.
And a growing number of marine species are reaching levels where extinction is considered a possibility.
Some estimate that two-thirds of marine species remain wholly undiscovered.
Geological records indicate that more than eighty per cent of marine species died out.
It also requires states to promote conservation of marine species, and protect iconic species, such as rhinos and elephants.
