Title: Introduction to Restoration Ecology
1Introduction to Restoration Ecology
- What is ecological restoration?
2Why do restoration?
- Human impacts threaten integrity, resilience and
sustainability - Introduced species, structures, and processes
- Altered disturbance regimes
- Fragmentation
- Changing climate
3What are the goals of restoration?
- Make ecosystems more like they once were
- Reduce need for continual intervention and active
management - Sustainability
- Ecological integrity
- Resilience
4Defining ecological restoration
- the process of assisting the recovery and
management of ecological integrity. Ecological
integrity includes a critical range of
variability in biodiversity, ecological processes
and structures, regional and historical context
and sustainable cultural practices - (Society for Ecological Restoration,
http//www.ser.org/definitions.html)
5Defining ecological restoration
- A broad conceptual framework for helping
ecosystems recover more nearly natural structure
and function while providing for continued use by
humans. For ecological restoration to proceed on
sound scientific footing, it must be rooted in
the best knowledge available, with carefully
reasoned analysis, checked against factual
evidence. - http//www.eri.nau.edu/FAQ.htm
6Similar terms (Bradshaw 1997, van Diggelen et
al. 2001)
- Reclamation
- Makes useful, but not necessarily original state
- Typically focuses on increasing biodiversity
- Often applied in highly disturbed sites
- Rehabilitation
- Reintroduces some ecosystem functions
- Any improvement from a degraded state
- Restoration
- Most ambitious
- Typically attempts to reconstruct structure,
composition and function of an ecosystem
7Successful restoration
- Some of the oldest and most successful
restoration projects are in prairies
Many restoration projects include restoring
natural fire regimes
8Restoration includes (Bradshaw 1997, Jackson et
al. 1995, Keane and Arno 2001)
- Assess need for action
- Inventory and describe
- Consider humans in an integrated ecological
approach - Identify goals and objectives
- Prioritize
- Design and implement treatments
- Monitor and evaluate success
- Maintain
- Use adaptive management
9Choosing references (White and Walker 1997,
Landres et al. 1999, Stephenson 1999)
- References are used in judging when restoration
is successful - References can be existing conditions in healthy
ecosystems, or they may be inferred from
historical information and models - Historical composition, structure, and
disturbance regimes should be guides rather than
goals
10Assumptions (http//www.ies.wisc.edu/cre/ )
- We can recreate historical conditions
- The physical environment can be manipulated to
support the desired plants and animals. - Inadequate substrate can be manipulated to
sustain native biota. - The desired biota (plants animals) will
establish if selected plant species are
introduced. - Reestablishing natural disturbance regimes is
critical to long-term sustainability
11Approaches
- Stephenson (1999) contrasted two
- Structure first, then process
- Process first, then structure
- Most people implement a hybrid of the two
approaches
12Opportunities (http//www.ies.wisc.edu/cre/)
- Produce native seed
- Support local business and communities with
small-scale logging - Promote as ecotourism
- Sequester carbon
13Challenges (http//www.ies.wisc.edu/cre/)
- Fragmented landscapes are dominated by humans
- Land use restrictions can affect taxes, income
generation, and public support - Requires interdisciplinary collaboration
- Long-term maintenance
- Gaining public support for fire and other
restoration programs
14Scale
- Most restoration efforts are small and
site-specific - Many restoration needs are broader (cover large
areas) and long-term
15Factors affecting success (Adapted from Jackson
et al. 1995)
Values
Social commitment
Narrowly anthropocentric
Low
Biocentric
High
Ideal
Rich data and expertise
Good, with little damage
Judgements
Poor, with irreversible damage
Data and knowledge
Ecological circumstances
16Literature cited
- Center for restoration ecology, University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Available Online lt
http//www.ies.wisc.edu/cre/ gt October 2, 2001. - Ecological restoration institute, Northern
Arizona University. Available Online lt
http//www.eri.nau.edu/FAQ.htm gt October 2, 2001. - Jackson, L.L., N. Lopoukhine, D. Hillyard. 1995.
Ecological restoration A definition and
comments. Restoration Ecology 3(2) 71-75. - Society for Ecological Restoration. 1996.
Definition of ecological restoration. Available
Online lt http//www.ser.org gt October 2, 2001. - Stephenson, N.L. 1999. Reference conditions for
giant sequoia forest restoration structure,
process and precision. Ecological Applications
994) 1253-1265. - Van Diggelen, R., Ab P. Grootjans and J. A.
Harris. 2001. Ecological restoration state of
the art or state of the science? Restoration
Ecology 9 (2)115-118. - White, P. S., and J. L. Walker. 1997.
Approximating natures variation selecting and
using reference information in restoration
ecology. Restoration Ecology 5338-349.