Katja Schweikert (L11,12, 19-23)

Question 1

What is ecological restoration?

Answer 1

The strategy for increasing the provision of ecosystem services as well as reversing biodiversity losses, and the maintenance of what we have
The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed

Question 2

What are the stages of ecosystem state?

Answer 2

Recovery
Response
Resilience
High resilience

Question 3

What are abiotic thresholds in ecosystem state, and why are they hard to conserve?

Answer 3

They are much harder to incorporate into conservation, management, and restoration efforts, as they can’t be predicted and it is hard to restore landforms
Includes fires, floods, and earthquakes

Question 4

What are biotic thresholds in ecosystem state, and how are they conserved?

Answer 4

Losing species
Can replant and relocate species

Question 5

What is ecosystem resilience?

Answer 5

Its capacity to absorb recurrent disturbances or shocks and adapt to change without fundamentally switching to an alternative stable state

Question 6

Christmas Island, Indian Ocean community and ecosystem effects of biological invasions

Answer 6

Indigenous biodiversity - boobies and red crabs (endemic)
Ecosystem processes and functions - bioturbation by the digging of burrows and feeding on leaf litter
Species interactions - crabs decimated by ants, coconut crabs, and moray eels. Booby falling out of trees
Trophic relationships - red crabs, crazy ants, boobies, coconut crabs
Direct effects of crazy ant invasion - ants eating red crabs
Indirect effects of crazy ant invasion - scale insects eaten by ants, trees becoming mouldy and dying
Thresholds - each species has a different threshold, ecosystem resilience is dependent on this. Crabs reached the threshold, resilience is poor and so is ecosystem function

Question 7

Restoration of Christmas Island

Answer 7

Restoring crab population, indicated by red beaches
Eradicate ants with poison
Removing understory growth

Question 8

Coral Reefs (Australia) case study

Answer 8

Phase shifts - alternative stable states

Phase shift - coral dominated system to alternate degraded macroalgal dominated state, Reverse phase shift - macroalgal dominated state to coral dominated system

Response to slow variables as drivers of change (storms, overfishing, added nutrients, and heatwaves), different tipping points

Response to fast variables as drivers of change (cyclones, bleaching episodes), different tipping points and the capacity to absorb disturbance without phase shift

Question 9

Future phase shifts and management in Coral Reefs (Australia) case study

Answer 9

Temperate reef assemblages show increased presence of tropical species (becoming tropicalised)
Shifts are visible where dominant foundation species such as kelp are replaced by tropical species
Ecosystem function of warming, temperate reefs will depend on the species that migrate and become dominant (cascading consequences on all trophic levels, resulting in changes to ecosystem services)
Poses challenge to management as tropicalised system will be novel (traditionally maintaining or returning to original state)

Question 10

What are the three potential tropicalisation trajectories in the Coral Reef (Australia) case study?

Answer 10

Temperate seaweed ->tropical seaweed, turf, or coral

Question 11

What does diversity change depend on?

Answer 11

How fast temperate species contract and tropical ones expand
The degree of functional redundancy between habitat forming species lost and gained
Changes in species interactions

Question 12

What are some possible management approaches to changes in diversity and ecosystem function?

Answer 12

MPAs - to increase resilience and connectivity
Capture new opportunities
Assisted evolution and migration

Question 13

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 13

A system of all living things in a unit of space interacting with non-living environment forming a functioning unit
Includes all kingdoms
Varies in size and occurrence
Includes people

Question 14

What is ecosystem function?

Answer 14

The capacity of natural processes and components to provide goods and services that satisfy human needs

Question 15

What processes are used to assess the complexity and level of function of the system?

Answer 15

Food webs
Energy flows
Water flow
Nutrient cycles
Services provided by the ecosystem

Question 16

What are ecosystem services?

Answer 16

Goods and services provided by an ecosystem that satisfies human needs, specifically that. support and sustain the wellbeing of people, either directly or indirectly

Question 17

What are the four types of services proposed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment?

Answer 17

Provisioning services - products obtained from ecosystems
Regulating services - benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes
Cultural services - nonmaterial benefits obtained from ecosystems
Supporting services - services necessary for the production of all other ecosystem service

Question 18

Why is human wellbeing due to ecosystem services so important?

Answer 18

It allows freedom of choice, which allows for ecosystem stewardship
It has a positive impact on services, closing the positive feedback loop
If you can’t feed your kids, you wouldn’t worry about the health of the ecosystem

Question 19

What is the relationship between water yield and native grassland in New Zealand?

Answer 19

There is an altitudinal pattern in the types of grasses: montane short tussock -> subalpine short-tall tussock -> low alpine tall tussock -> high alpine mixed grassland

Snow tussock features (rolling) causes a water channel for the plant to take up water
Allows for fog interception
Allows for snow accumulation

They have adapted morphologically to increase water yield

Question 20

How does afforestation affect water yield in tussocks?

Answer 20

Pine close the canopy, leading to less water reaching the ground
30% loss in water yield after 10-15 years
Planting trees is good, but it needs to fit its environment or it can have negative effects

Question 21

Why is it important to involve Maori values in environmental management?

Answer 21

As they recognise the holistic and cyclic nature of the ecosystems and the species they support
A wider range of perspectives can support a better picture and is important for funding applications

Question 21

Why is it important to involve Maori values in sustainability?

Answer 21

Maori are attuned to thinking intergenerationally about the environment, which is useful in the context of climate change challenges and environmental restoration

Question 22

What are Indigenous/Hapu Management Plans (IHMP) and why are they so important?

Answer 22

Resource management plans prepared by an individual or collective of iwi, runanga, hapu, marae, and post settlement governance entities
They identify issue of importance to tangata whenua regarding the management of natural and physical resources within an area they have a relationship to

Question 23

What others Acts does the IHMP influence?

Answer 23

Land Transport Management Act 2003
Local Government Act 2002
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 and Reserves Act 1997
Climate Change Response Act 2002
Biosecurity Act 1993
Conservation Act 1987
Fisheries Act 1996 and Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011
EEZ Act 2012

Question 24

What is the internal role of IHMPs?

Answer 24

Iwi, hapu, whanau
Helps to prioritise and inform a consistent approach, build internal capacity and capability, articulate a tangata whenua (visions and framework)
Offer a holistic and place-based Maori worldview through the incorporation of culturally informed values

Question 25

What is the external role of IHMPs?

Answer 25

Councils, government agencies, resource users
Be a planning tool for engagement
Help to educate and build community understanding
Influence decision making
Identify relevant parties

Question 26

What are the different types/scales of IHMPs?

Answer 26

Area (broad)
Issue (specific)
Kaupapa Maori (dominant Maori view)

Question 27

Who are indigenous people?

Answer 27

Non-dominant groups of society that resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems

Question 28

Why are indigenous people’s views so important in resource management?

Answer 28

They are the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, despite having minimal ecological impact

Question 29

What are the key principles of the indigenous approach to resource management?

Answer 29

Holistic thinking
Intergenerational knowledge
Community based decision making
All decisions speak to wellbeing
It is closely tied with their worldview

Question 30

How indigenous and non-indigenous firms differ?

Answer 30

Indigenous firms are driven by serving communities and wellbeing
Non-indigenous firms are driven by shareholders and profit

Question 31

What is the Kereru Conflict?

Answer 31

Maori want to keep kereru population thriving, used for burying with loved ones and given to pregnant women
Western people want to protect population from hunting
Put a complete ban
Maori can no longer use it
“Both groups wanted to protect the kereru, but for different reasons and by different means”

Question 32

What is the Khoi San Conflict?

Answer 32

Native people of Africa
Amazon headquarter construction work occurs at a sacred site
Two groups having a ‘face off’ as good for employment but bad for land and connectedness to the environment

Demonstrates tensions when different worldviews meet, regardless of country

Question 33

What has kept the Osun grove relatively intact while others have deminished?

Answer 33

A belief system coupled with traditional law
Taboos and repercussions associated with violating the grove is more of a deterrent than any other measure such as legislation

Demonstrates how belief systems can help resource management

Question 34

Why is the Arctic greening?

Answer 34

Due to climate change effects and the loss of permafrost

Question 35

What are the main climate warming effects in the Arctic?

Answer 35

Over the span of a decade, Arctic amplification of global warming is evident, no part of the Arctic was cooler compared with the 1971-2000 average

Question 36

When did the climate warming effects hit the Arctic?

Answer 36

From 2000, you can very much see the difference in graphs, the troughs don’t go below the global average

Question 37

How does the 2021 sea ice minimum differ from the 2007 one?

Answer 37

The 2021 sea ice minimum extent doesn’t ever reach the 2007 sea ice minimum

Question 38

Why is the age of sea ice important?

Answer 38

The older the ice, the better it stores temperature due to being denser and more compact

Question 39

How does sea ice loss change ocean productivity?

Answer 39

It causes eutrophication which boosts productivity in the ocean due to warmer waters, species might end up moving further south

Question 40

Why is the Arctic becoming more flammable?

Answer 40

There is more plant material, more leaf litter, and plants bring more flammable material and create more fires
Due to an increase in plants overall

Question 41

How will permafrost thaw and melting of ground ice effect the Arctic?

Answer 41

It can cause ponds and wetlands (positive), gullying erosion due to rain rather than snowfall, degradation of ice wedge networks, drainage, bank failure, active slides, melting ground ice, and slumps
All will lead to new habitats, could be a positive change, especially with increases in water

Question 42

What will the effects of warming be on the Arctic biomes?

Answer 42

Alternate stable state
A lot of dense savanna and boreal forest

Question 43

What does resilience depend on?

Answer 43

The ecosystem, species, and their interactions