Kelp communities are most fascinating of marine communities. Kelps are a group of large, brown seaweeds that live in cold waters. All kelps go through a large, spore producing sporophyte stage. The sporophyte is the organism we see.

In some kelps, sporophyte is an annual.In contrast, the giant kelps can live for several years. Kelp forests along the Pacific coast of North America are arranged in distinct depth zones.