The global decline of megafauna is believed to have had significant and widespread ecological impacts. One such extinction of likely important consequence is the 18th century extinction of the Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas); however, little has been written about how the loss of this megaherbivore may have impacted coastal ecosystem dynamics. Drawing on historical evidence, sea cow biology, kelp forest ecology, and the ecology of extant sirenians, we propose several discrete hypotheses about the effects Steller’s sea cows may have had on kelp forest dynamics of the North Pacific.

中文翻译：

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巨人的幽灵——关于已灭绝的巨型食草动物如何构建北太平洋沿岸海带森林的六个假设

据信，全球巨型动物群的减少已经产生了重大而广泛的生态影响。一种可能具有重要后果的灭绝是 18 世纪 Steller 海牛 ( Hydrodamalis gigas ) 的灭绝；然而，关于这种巨型食草动物的消失可能如何影响沿海生态系统动态的报道很少。利用历史证据、海牛生物学、海带森林生态学和现存海牛的生态学，我们提出了几个关于 Steller 海牛可能对北太平洋海带森林动态产生的影响的离散假设。