Comparing passive and active kelp restoration techniques along an urbanised coast

Kelp forests have received increasing attention due to widespread declines in many regions, alongside stability or expansions in others, and the potential to reverse loss where it has occurred. Such reversal requires understanding which techniques of intervention can restore their coverage at large scales in cost-effective ways. We investigated two techniques of kelp forest restoration along a metropolitan coast in southern Australia: ‘passive’ restoration, involving seascape-scale improvements to water quality for multi-species restoration of kelp forests and seagrass meadows, and ‘active’ restoration, which involves local-scale kelp transplants to restore kelp forests. Passive restoration through water quality improvements (i.e., wastewater treatment plant upgrades) over 10 years yielded kelp recovery of 1.15 hectares. Active restoration through transplanting local 1 m2 patches of kelp over 3 years yielded 0.0008 hectares. While each technique produced next-generation recruits to..., , Data file for JAPPL-2025-00866

# Data from: Comparing passive and active kelp restoration techniques along an urbanised coast

Journal of publication: *Journal of Applied Ecology*

Corresponding author: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

### DATA AND FILE OVERVIEW

This data relates to measurements of kelp forest recovery associated with two restoration approaches: passive restoration via water quality improvements and active restoration via kelp transplantation, along an urbanised coastline in southern Australia.

Data include estimates of percent kelp cover and turf cover collected from field surveys between 2007 and 2025, as well as mapped reef areas. Passive restoration data quantify changes in kelp cover derived from transect-based habitat surveys across multiple reef sites. Active restoration data quantify changes in kelp cover based on the mapped area of individual transplanted kelp patches, converted to percentage cover relative to the total re..., ,