Midterm Flashcards
What are the three main components of ecosystems?
1) Composition
2) Structure
3) Function/processes
Contrast ER with the several related alternatives we discussed.
1) Restoration - Focus on restoring abiotic and biotic to historical reference conditions
2) Reclamation
3) Remediation
4) Enhancement
5) Compensation/mitigation
In the figure depicting causes and consequences of ecological degradation, what are the impacts and what is being impacted?
The impacts are human caused and related to consumption, resource efficiency, and population.
Human existence in its current form causes habitat loss/alteration/fragmentation, pollution, invasive species, climate change, and overexploitation.
These impacts affect
1) biodiversity (genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity)
2) ecosystem services, in particular the regulating and supporting ecosystem services (but also cultural and provisioning) – but from a biological perspective, these impacts affect
3) ecosystem health/functioning.
- Provisioning: resources
- Regulating: water, air, soil
- Supporting: Nutrient cycling, pollination, soil formation
- Cultural: Fashion, beauty, spiritual
What are the 13 main components of a restoration project?
Some girls buy too many pink plump pillow. I play my radio.
1) Site assessment
2) Goals and Objectives
3) budget
4) Treatments
5) Monitoring Plan
6) Permits and Approvals
7) Public outreach
8) Pre-restoration monitoring
9) Implement Restoration treatments
10) Post-restoration monitoring
11) Maintenance
12) Reevaluate and adjust
13) Document changes
What are the main stressors caused by Pollution?
Creation of industrial, Agricultural and domestic pollution. Excess nutrients, pharmaceuticals, metals, organic, inorganic, toxic chemicals. Wide disperal, far reaching.
What are the main stressors caused by of species introductions?
Homogenization of biodiversity, increases chances of local extinctions, reduction of habitat function
What are the main stressors caused by altering Natural Disturbances?
Changes to natural cycles, fire regimes, flooding events, stabilization of coasts
What are the main stressors caused by Climate Change?
Increasing intensity and frequency of drought, tropical storms, warming, affects physiological response to climate.
What are the main stressors caused by Overexploitation
Overfishing, hunting, habitat destruction,
What are the main impacts of the drivers of Ecological Change?
1) Population declines
- extinction vortex - environmental, demographic, genetic events
2) Habitat fragmentation
- reduced genetic variability
3) Invasives
- Hybridization - loss or gain of advantages
4) Species interactions - predation, parasitism, competition
- Ecosystem services! Fungi, pollination, nurse
5) Alternative stable states
6) Ecosystem Decline - trophic cascade
What are some characteristics of ER?
1) Inexact - Restoration is an inexact science. This is largely to do with the fact we lack clear data relating to
- Baseline data lacking
- Reference sites lacking
- Variability in ecosystems over time
This making it hard to clearly set goals and objectives when you’re targets are undefined and variable over space and time.
2) Synthetic discipline
3) Iterative Process
What are some key traits of a healthy ecosystem?
1) Efficiency - creating and recycling energy
2) Redundancy - many things with similar functions
3) Sustainability - persistence over time
4) Resiliency - resists disturbances, follows successional pathways.
5) Adaptability - Able to change with changing conditions
6) Organized - Distributions due to abiotic and biotic factors
7) Continuous - Ecotones
8) Thresholds in space and time - Some species require a lot of space, some processes require a lot of time
What are some common indicators of ecosystem traits? (Best to use multiple)
1) Diversity
2) Overabundant species (native or non-native)
3) Water Quality
4) Hydrology
5) Soil
6) Contaminants
What are the three sites you would use indicator data to compare a restoration site to?
1) Reference Site
2) Control Site
3) Baseline data
What is the relationship between ecosystem traits and indicators?
Indicators are measurable values that reflect ecosystem traits.
Why is native species composition largely used as the goal of ER?
Influences structure and processes and easy indicator.
When should ER not be used?
When natural succession is improving conditions at a satisfactory rate.
When site is too degraded to restore given the current restraints.
When doing species based restoration, what are the factors you need to examine during site assessment?
Status: amount and trend of a species
Critical Habitat: What is needed for food, shelter, breeding etc
What are some tools to assess historical conditions?
1) Soils
2) Historic Photos
3) Reference Sites
4) Historic land surveys
5) Tree ring analyses - fires, precipitation
6) Oral history
What are the 4 components of a basic site assessment?
1) Historical conditions
2) Current conditions
3) Stressors/Impacts
4) Desired Future conditions
Compare Goals and Objectives
Goals: Statements about what you’re trying to accomplish
Objectives: Specific, measurable, time-specific, results-oriented.
What is SWOT-C and how is it used?
Used to formulate goals and objectives.
Strengths - factors that +ve influence your site
Weaknesses - stressors
Opportunities - Things that may benefit the site
Threats - Something impending that may affect site, like erosion after clear cutting
Constraints - socioeconomic, political, native habitat, endangered species.
During site assessment, what are the three main categories of information you need to compile for current conditions?
1) General - site ownership, access, utility locations,
2) Physical - hydrology, soils, water quality
3) Biological
What is the most effective spending of resources in time and spatial scales?
Better to invest in one shot, rather than avoid redundancies over time. Cost/area is less in large scale restoration.
