Restoration Ecology Flashcards
What is ecological resilience?
natural ability of an ecosystem to
recover from a disturbance
What issues can influence the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its functioning ?
- Anthropogenic activities, such as logging, mining, ranching, when
intensive, can damage ecosystems where these activities occur - Nearby ecosystems can also become damaged due to chemical
pollution, or other disturbances, as a result of these activities - Climate change is predicted to change climatic conditions across
the planet, which can further reduce the ecological resilience of
damaged ecosystems.
What is ecological restoration?
practice of restoring species/ecosystems in an
area to a point in time before they were degraded, damaged, or
destroyed.
What is restoration ecology ?
science of ecological restoration, research,
scientific study of restored populations, communities ecosystems.
Explain the importance of restoration ecology.
- Degraded lands and aquatic communities often need be restored in order to
be integrated into existing conservation networks (especially in face of
climate change) - Degraded areas are unproductive (have little economic value) “
restorations can increase economic productivity and conservation value - Degraded areas can be restored in order to restore essential ecosystem
services # especially of concern after disasters have occurred
What is compensatory mitigation?
- aka biodiversity offsets
- creation of a new site or
rehabilitation of one that already exists to compensate for lost sites
elsewhere - Compensatory mitigation can reduce ecosystem service losses in the face
of changing land uses. It can also play a role in helping humans adapt to
future climate change.
What are the uses of ecological restoration ?
- Governments may restore ecosystems damaged by their own
activities (e.g. Lake Erie restoration)
-Businesses may be legally required to restore habitats damaged
by their own activities (e.g. strip mines restored once mining
activities have ceased)
- Goal often to restore ecosystem processes / ecosystems
damaged by human activities (e.g. dam construction, fire
suppression) - Biodiversity offsets can be used to replace ecosystems destroyed
elsewhere by urban development or agricultural expansion
What are the four main approaches to ecological restoration?
- No action - massive restoration
- Rehabilitation
- Partial restoration
- Complete restoration
Approaches to ecological restoration:
- No action?
- recovery possible without human intervention, or restoration has previously failed or is
deemed too expensive.
Approaches to ecological restoration:
- Rehabilitation ?
- degraded ecosystem is replaced with a
different, productive one (can involve replacement of a few
species, or many species).
Approaches to ecological restoration:
- Partial restoration
- at least some of original ecosystem
functions / species are restored (typically, focus is on dominant
species, resilient species, keystone species, leaving rare
species for later).
Approaches to ecological restoration:
- Complete restoration?
- original ecosystem, complete with
species composition / community structure, restored through
adaptive restoration, after original cause(s) of loss are
mitigated.
What factors will contribute to decisions around an ecological restoration?
- speed of restoration
- cost
- reliability of results
- ability of target community to persist with little / no future maintenance
- will require an multi-disciplinary team, involving people with both theoretical and application knowledge
A habitat is considered for ecological restoration. The proposed plan is
to focus on removing the invasive species that has taken over, then
reintroducing some of the species that are now absent, and use
surrogates for species that it is not feasible / possible to restore. This
should restore some level of ecosystem function, even if it does not
include the same services as was offered by the original ecosystem.
Based on this description, which approach is being proposed here?
A. Passive restoration
B. Rehabilitation
C. Partial restoration
D. Complete restoration
E. Biocultural restoration
B. Rehabilitation
What are the common goals involved regardless of the type of ecological restoration occurring?
- Create ecosystem comparable in function or in species composition to
an existing reference site - Re-create historic landscape or species assemblage using old
photographs / descriptions in journals (requires establishing clear objectives) - Restore ecosystem processes that can help us adapt to effects of climate change
What are reference sites? What is rewilding?
- Ref site: a site that acts as a control, providing restoration goals,
quantitative measurements that can use to determine restoration success - Rewilding: restoring an area to natural / uncultivated state, often
involves reintroducing locally extinct species or using ecological surrogates
when original species are not available
Give an example of rewilding.
- Oostvaardersplassen
- heck cattle used as replacement for extinct aurochs
- ecolgoical surrogates
- konik pony replaced extinct tarpans
- red deer introduced
Even though rewilding occurred at Oostvaardersplassen , what are some issues still present?
- Herbivores, once introduced, experienced population explosions ->
grasslands and marshes replaced woody vegetation, and birds returned
(many endangered species) has led to problems
controlling herbivore population sizes, which are under bottom-up control as a result (leading to starvation)
-Starving animals in the park made international news, leading to the
requirement that reserve managers destroy any animals that are clearly
suffering
Rewilding issues from Oostvaardersplassen led to a debate about?
- ecological assembly order
L> practical consideration for restorations - what order do you return sp
Which of the following best describes rewilding?
A. The creation of a new site to compensate for a site that will
be lost elsewhere
B. Restoration of an area to a state that existed previously,
but has since been lost
C. A site that acts as a template for a restoration project
D. The need to establish lower trophic level species before
reintroducing higher trophic levels to an area
E. Restoration with the use of both native and exotic species
in order to establish a functional ecosystem
B.
L> but include that you are returning it to an uncultivated area
What are the four main practical considerations for ecological restoration?
- Type of action
- Ecological assembly order
- genotypes of reintroduced sp
- Support / participation of local stakeholders
Practical considerations of ecological restoration:
- Type of action required
- Most degraded may require both physical and biological
alterations - If the damage was caused by a specific abiotic factor (e.g. water overdrafting), will need to address original cause first
- abiotic constrains could require removing of levees, building substrates etc
- biotic barriers require planting, reintroducing missing trophic levels, providing prey as food source
- mostly intact ecosystems may require only better management strategies
Practical considerations of ecological restoration:
- Ecological assembly order
- what order should sp be restored?
- trophic elves decisions are easier, bc prey pops must be established before predators
L> * plants -> herbivores -> preds - overlaps in functional relationships make decisions harder -> if have multiple sp with similar ecological role, what order should we use
L> reference sites are helpful for this
Practical considerations of ecological restoration:
- Genotypes of reintroduced sp
L> LIB?
- local is best (LIB) approach. Prioritize locally adapted genotypes if possible:
1. Local adaptations impact likelihood of species persistence in area
2. Reduced risk of outbreeding depression within area
3. Reduces chances of genetic swamping from nonlocal genotypes
Practical considerations of ecological restoration:
- Genotypes of reintroduced sp
L> What if LIB is not feasible?
- When LIB is not feasible (or even possible), may need to rely on more
distant populations as sources for reintroduced individuals (even nonnative
species)
- If local native populations would be harmed by loss of individuals
- If local native populations are too small / contain too little genetic variation -> risk of inbreeding depression within newly established population
Practical considerations of ecological restoration:
- Gaining support / participation of local stakeholders?
- Restoration efforts often initiated by local conservation groups
-> recognize ties between environmental health local people’s
economic and personal well-being - Can also receive funding from local landowners / conservation
groups, or other support (people to help in restoration, to
manage area, etc.)
Explain the Green Belt movement.
- Grass roots movement in Kenya established in 1977
- Goals: to promote environmental conservation; to build climate resilience and empower communities, especially women and girls; to foster democratic space and sustainable livelihoods.
- Has planted over 51 million trees since 1977
-Organizes rural people (especially women) to give them a voice in
political process, provides them with access to public forests and prevents illegal logging
**example of the importance of educating the public
T/F : Successful restorations require that we first control or remove the agent(s) that eld to the original habitat loss, once this is done the ecosystem will not recover naturally without further intervention.
F. It will often recover naturally = passive restoration
BUT we may also need to actively restore features of the ecosystem via adaptive restoration
What is adaptive restoration ?
- involves active management of area post-restoration,
costly, requirement to ensure long-term success of restoration
L> Native species that failed to thrive may need to be supplemented, ones that failed to
survive may need to be reintroducing natives
L> Secondary invasion - a different invasive species has entered area and needs to be
removed
L> Removing roads / other human infrastructure
L> Restoring connectivity
L> Repairing soil, etc.
If it is not possible to restore original ecosystem bc human activities have greatly altered the environment, what is the best solution?
- creation of novel ecosystems, containing a mix of native and exotics
Give a general overview of restoration ecology to date.
- efforts to restore degraded terrestrial communities have focused one establishing original plant community
- growing recognition that we can’t ignore the other major components of a community (fungi, bacteria (nutrient cycling), herbivore mediated coexistence (lowers plant comp), birds and insects (pollination), birds and mammals (insect control, seed dispersal, soil digging))
- restoration goals can change over time : climate change impacts, plant succession, varying abundances of common sp, other factors
What is reconciliation ecology?
development of urban places where
people and biodiversity can coexist
How are landfill sites an opportunity for restoration?
- Once landfill site is closed, capped with plastic sheets and layers
of clay (prevents toxins, chemicals from garbage from polluting
soil) - If left alone -> weedy exotics take over
- Can instead restore native species, in full or in part, and increase
ecosystem services in area - Humans benefit from having wilderness area close to / within
urban areas (e.g. bird watching, insect collectors, yoga in the
park, etc.)
**Ex: Fresh Kills Landfill, Staten Island -> need to tackle locals perspectives on the location as well
What is Rouge National urban Park?
- large urban park in GTA
- various conservation and restoration projects are on going there (bears landfill restoration, conservation and agricultural enhancement projects, banding’s turtles with Toronto zoo, UTSC + Rouge app to inform public)
- home to a lot of biodiversity and SAR
What is bicultural restoration?
use of restoration projects to educate
public about biology, conservation, ecology
Explain what is going on with Area de Conservation Guanacaste (ACG). What is this an example of?
- Most tropical dry forest habitat tis gone via logging, fires, hunting etc
- Guanacaste Conservation Fund: large scale conversion of cattle ranges into tropical dry forests (American Ecologists, Costa Rican Ministry of Env, residents)
- Goal: restore BD and cultural connectivity of dry forest and marine habitat
- completed inventories of key species, used DNA barcoding and parataxonomists
- eliminated bush fires, banned logging and hunting, planted native and exotic trees to shade out exotic grasses
- ## Over 29 years, sp rich young forests have established (will take 200-500 years for full recovery)
Adaptation to climate change involves?
- mitigation
L> reduce greenhouse gas emissions
through human action (reduce ‘carbon
footprint) - adaptation
L> restore ecosystems to help mitigate
effects of climate change to help humans
adapt to it - Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA)
L> mechanisms
for ecosystems to help in adaptation to climate
change
What do EbAs include?
- Managing ecosystem services to reduce human
impacts (e.g. fire, coral bleaching) - Managing ecosystems to reduce impacts of climate
change (e.g. rising sea levels) - Adaptation of conservation strategies to conserve
biodiversity in face of climate change - Goal: Focus on activities with immediate payoff and with
long-term adaptation benefits (ones most likely to succeed)
Explain coastal protection in an EbA framework.
- Healthy corals and wetlands
offer flood protection - Mangroves / coastal vegetation
->reduce power of storm
surges - Climate change -> increased
storm severity and frequency - EbA goal: Maintaining / restoring
these areas for future protection
**EX: In SE Asia, a lot of mangroves and coastal areas were cleared for aquaculture, large storms now cause coastal towns and lands to flood. EbA aims to restore mangroves to mitigate flooding, additionally is adds a large carbon pool
Explain the EbA plan for Albemarle Sound. What cons group is doing this?
- its a large estuary
- peat soils are large carbon pools
- it was drained to improve agriculture
- increasing sea levels , cause peat soils to dissolve which further increases seawater intrusions (threatening farms and towns)
- EbA plan: convert unable cropland into estuary habitat, regenerate wetlands, less CO2 is released from peat and coastal lands protected from flooding. Nature conservancy is doing this.
What is the EbA goal for water supply protection with cloud forests?
- regional strategies to reduce lowland forest loss
- help maintain cloud forests and stream flow
- Some Background : Cloud forests covert moisture in fog into water -> streamflow that supplies lower elevation ecosystems. Lifting cloud bases decreases stream flow. Lowland forests -> agricultural fields (contributes to less evapotranspiration to clouds). Cloud formation reduced, warming leads to clouds forming higher up -> stress on cloud forest
What is the EbA goal for water supply protection with Montane forests?
- Strategies to maintain forests where high snowpack
- Reduces impacts of climate change on seasonality of runoff
- Montane Forest Background: As spring advances -> earlier snowmelt, less water later in water year. Forests slow snow melt (shade
snow, retain it)
What is the EbA goal for water supply protection with Glacier melt?
Background:
- Glacier melt impacts streamflow
-Downslope tundra / paramo soils-> maintain seasonal water
supply for downstream
ecosystems
Goal:
- Strategies to maintain tundra / paramo habitats (e.g. reduced grazing)
- Replaces some of water lost by
glacier melt
What is Agroforestry?
cultivation and incorporation of trees
What are two approaches for climate smart agriculture (food production)?
- Use natural soil ecosystems for crop growth
2. Agroforestry
Climate-smart agriculture:
- Use natural soil ecosystems for crop growth ?
- Soil moisture / productivity -> benefits crops
- Agricultural lands that maintain natural soil processes
reduce climate change impacts
-More organic matter / richer microbes
Climate-smart agriculture:
- Agroforestry?
Combining natural forest with tree crops or trees with row
crops “ cools crops & soil, maintains crop productivity
What is the EbA goal for food production wrt to climate smart agriculture?
- Encourage farming practices that promote agroforestry & soil organic material (climate-smart agriculture)
-More water available to crops as water stress increases
-Crops also protected from increase in temperatures (shade
trees)
How does ecological restoration help with disaster risk?
- Restoring forests in areas prone to landslides or
floods can help reduce the impacts of these disasters
in the future - Climate change -> increased global temperatures =
increase in hydrological cycle (more powerful storms)
-Restoring ecosystems with high water holding
capacity (e.g. high elevation wetlands, grasslands)
can also help reduce impacts of water stress due to
shrinking tropical glaciers
- Forests and wetlands also act as large carbon stores
-> their restoration can help mitigate climate change
by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
