Quiz 5

Question 1

What is rewilding? What does it facilitate?

Answer 1

reintroducing grazing animals (bison) across the landscape
- it facilitates self sustaining, self organizing and resilient ecosystems shaped by natural processes

Question 2

Rewiliding enhances ecosystem functionality and resilience via?

Answer 2

• heterogeneity
• trophic complexity
• large herbivores and predators
• large spaces and connectivity

Question 3

How does rewilding differ from classical restoration?

Answer 3

• aims for minimal to no ongoing management in the long term
• focuses on present and future ecosystem functioning and resilience, allowing the ecosystem to continually adapt and self organize in response to environmental changes
• lower fidelity to taxonomic precedent and promotes taxonomic replacement for extinct native species that once underpinned the delivery of key ecological functions

Question 4

According to the table, what opportunities or challenges do you see with the Pleistocene Rewilding Approach?

Answer 4

pros: naturally occuring control of weeds and grasses to allow proper corridors and reduce secondary succession dominant species
cons: costly and will take time, as bison are the only species historically that would survive here on the prairies which we extincted along with too many fences for animals to roam

Question 5

what is the main advantage of rewiliding?

Answer 5

heterogeneity

Question 6

What is hitchhiker planting?

Answer 6

Overstory woody species (e.g. trees) grown with herbaceous understory species (e.g. forbs) or woody understory species (e.g. shrubs) in the nursery.

Question 7

Why is establishing forest understory plants through direct seeding ineffective?

Answer 7

a. lack of commercially available seed sources
b. low germination percentage and/or seedling survival (due to adverse site conditions, weed competition, seed predation, and pests)
c. high inter-annual variability in site conditions
high costs associated with the large quantity of seeds required.

Question 8

what are 3 benefits of hitchiker planting?

Answer 8

• Rapid site occupancy of target species
• reduced amount of undesirable species
• reduced herbicide use
• shelter for shade-tolerant woody species
• reduced planting costs by combining growing and outplanting of two target species