Important terms Flashcards
Ecological restoration (def)
The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.
Aims of Ecological restoration
- Improve biodiversity conservation
- Secure the delivery of ecosystem services including mitigating effects of natural disasters and climate change
- Ensure projects are integrated with socio-cultural needs and realities
- Contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development
8 principles underpinning ecological restoration
1) Engages stakeholders
2) Draws on many types of knowledge
3) ER practice is informed by native reference ecosystems, while considering environmental change
4) Supports ecosystem recovery processes
5) Ecosystem recovery is assessed against clear goals and objectives, using measurable indicators
6) Seeks the highest level of recovery attainable
7) Gains cumulative value when applied at large scales
8) Is part of a continuum of restorative activities
Remediation
A management activity, such as removal or detoxification of contaminants or excess nutrients from soil or water to remove sources of degradation.
Rehabilitation
Actions aiming at reinstalling ecosystem functionality, e.g. to provide ecosystem services.
Ecological engineering
Involves manipulation of natural materials, living organisms or the environment to achieve specific human goals.
Reclamation
(Re)turning the land into what is considered to be a useful purpose. Also used when the land is stabilized to improve public safety and aesthetic experiences.
Reference ecosystem
A representation of a native ecosystem that is the target of ecological restoration. A reference ecosystem usually represents a non-degraded version of the ecosystem complete with its flora, fauna, and other biota, abiotic elements, functions, processes, and successional states that might have existed on the restoration sites had degradation not occurred and adjusted to accommodate changed or predicted environmental conditions.
Reference site
An extant intact site that has attributes and a successional phase similar to the restoration project site and that is used to inform the reference model.
Conservation/Benign Introductions
An attempt to establish a species, for the purpose of conservation, outside its recorded distribution but within an appropriate habitat and ecogeographical area.
Composition
what is present and in which amounts
Configuration
spatial arrangement
Ecotope
Horizontal component of a landscape (Tope = homogeneous piece of land (scale dependent) within an attribute)
Converging and diverging boundaries
Convergence: boundary represented by more than one attribute (-> one road is united with other roads to form a single road).
Divergence: boundary in one attribute only (-> one road is divided into several roads).
What is Landscape metrics?
- ”Objective/neutral” landscape description (using numbers, so no personal opinions)
- Quantification of spatial heterogeneity
- Relationship between patterns and processes
- Quantification tool (rather than goal)
Restoration
bringing back the function of an area and also bringing back the species that used to live there before the damage
Degraded
some parts of the system has been ruined, but the original system is still visible (fx cutting down trees).
Damaged
parts of the system has been change, and that lead to that other parts of the system change too (fx digging ditches dries the land around).
Destroyed
the system is not recognizeble anymore and it will take a lot of time and effort to get the system back to the orginal (fx open cast mining, peat digging).
Ecosystems vs. Landscapes
- Ecosystem (definition): “a system of relationships and interactions among living organisms and their abiotic such as soil, water and air, at a specified location”
- Landscape (definition): “an assemblage of ecosystems that are arranged in recognizable patterns and that exchange organisms and materials such as nutrients and water”
Landscape Ecology
”Causes behind and consequences of variations in landscapes”
Mires, wetlands, bogs, fens (def)
- Mires are peatlands where peat is currently being formed >20 cm peat.
- Wetlands may be mires but also saturated mineral soil land.
- Bogs are mires raised above the surrounding landscape and solely fed by precipitation. Always acidic (pH<4)
- Fens are mires placed in depressions, also fed by ground- and surface waters. Often neutral or slightly alkaline (spring water lime).
Causes of Mire Disturbance
- Peat extraction
- Indirect change in hydrological regimes
- Landscape drainage/ditching to reclaim forest or arable land
- Atmospheric N deposition
Chores
Systematic combination of ecotopes (fx et et system eller samling af ecotopes, som gentager sig selv).
Gruppering af ecotopes i logiske grupper med samme karakterer.
Ecosystem function
Biomass and process rates (e.g. net primary production.
aka point processes or vertical fluxes
Landscape function
Fluxes of matter, energy and genes.
aka horizontal transport or lateral fluxes
Landscape Ecology is about…
… identifying, mapping, and quantifying fluxes.
Fluxes can be described by its factors (“acting to fulfill the function”). Factors:
○ Operational factor – what?
○ Conditional factors – why?
○ Positional factors – where/why there?
○ Besides this it is useful to identify the flux Agent during the factor description – by what/who?
Function meaning in landscape ecology
fluxes of matter, energy and organisms, the sum of processes
Main Lake disturbances
- Eutrofication
- Pollution
- Acidification of the water
- Sediment load
- Physical modification
Restoration in heathlands are difficult because of:
○ Nutrients (agriculture, air pollution)
○ Tree seed sources
Restoration tools in heathlands
○ Cropping
○ Top soil removal
○ Artificial acidification
○ Cutting of trees
The Carbon Copy-myth
The myth is rooted in the idea that ecosystems develop in a predictable fashion toward a specified, static, end point or climax (a single endpoint exists).
The Field of Dreams-myth
Stems from the notion that all one needs is the physical structure for a particular ecosystem, and biotic composition and function will self-assemble - if you build it, they will come.
The Fast-Forwarding-myth
Is based on the idea that one can accelerate ecosystem development by controlling pathways, such as dispersal, colonization, and community assembly, to reduce the time required to create a functional or desired ecosystem.
The Cookbook-myth
When a particular restoration experience is successful in one area or ecosystem, we naturally want to apply the same techniques in other restoration efforts.
The Command and Control (Sisyphus Complex)-myth
Goals are achieved by active intervention and unending control, or manipulation of physical and biological components of the ecosystem.
The River Continuum Concept
A river changes constantly as it moves downstream, and can only truly be understood as a continuum.
3 major ways, freshwater systems are degraded , damaged or destroyed
In-stream human impact
Changes to the run
Changes in the catchment
What is monitoring?
“Monitoring is technically defined as systematically checking or scrutinizing (forskende) something for the purpose of collecting specified categories of data.”
“In ecology, it generally refers to sampling conducted to detect changes in physical, chemical, or biological parameters.”
Control/Impact evaluation
Man sammenligner den restaurerede del med en del af samme område, som ikke er blevet restaureret (kontrol-området). Her formoder man at impact-området ville have lignet kontrol-området, hvis man ikke havde gjort noget.
Before/After evaluation
Man måler på området før restaurering og efter området er blevet restaureret. Her formoder man at det restaurerede område ville have blevet ved med at ligne det område, det var før, hvis man ikke have gjort noget.
