Thousands of square miles of previously unrecorded kelp forest that could provide a refuge for wildlife amid climate change have been discovered.

The marine habitats were found deep beneath the waves by researchers on an expedition to the Galapagos islands. They used computer models to work out where they were likely to be hidden. An expedition to the Galapagos islands earlier this year confirmed the forecasts when researchers found kelp forests exactly where they’d predicted. The researchers concluded that 8,880 square miles (23,000 sq km) of tropical kelp, a type of seaweed, are growing in the Atlantic, the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It is thought to grow at depths as shallow as 80ft (24m) and as deep as 775ft and to provide a deep-water sanctuary for many marine species.

It had been thought that kelp plants in tropical waters were a relic of when the world was cooler, but the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that they are much more significant.

“The existence of a deep-water refuge for tropical kelp has profound biogeographical and evolutionary consequences,” the researchers reported.

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