Resource Database

Restoration of Prairie Community Structure and Ecosystem Function in an Abandoned Hayfield: A Sowing Experiment

Using a multispecies seed sowing experiment, we investigated the roles of seed and microsite limitation in constraining the restoration of native prairie diversity and ecosystem function in an abandoned upland hayfield in northeastern Kansas. Our findings reveal the importance of seed limitations in constraining the natural recovery of prairie vegetation, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning in this grassland and confirm broadcast sowing as a useful tool for the restoration of upland hayfield sites.

Restoration of Rivers Used for Timber Floating: Effects on Riparian Plant Diversity

Fluvial processes such as flooding and sediment deposition play a crucial role in structuring riparian plant communities. In rivers throughout the world, these processes have been altered by channelization and other anthropogenic stresses. Yet despite increasing awareness of the need to restore natural flow regimes for the preservation of riparian biodiversity, few studies have examined the effects of river restoration on riparian ecosystems. In this study, we examined the effects of restoration in the Ume River system, northern Sweden, where tributaries were channelized to facilitate timber floating in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Restoring Lions Panthera leo to Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: Short-term Biological and Technical Success but Equivocal Long-term Conservation

The success of efforts to re-establish mammalian carnivores within their former range is dependent on three key factors: methodological considerations, the biological requirements of the target species, and the involvement of local human communities for whom large carnivores pose a threat. We consider the role of these factors in the first 13 years of an effort to re- establish wild lions in northern KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

Restoring Oyster Reefs to Recover Ecosystem Services

Declines in the abundance of oysters are a consequence of degradation of oyster reefs via destructive harvesting practices as well as overfishing, oyster disease, sedimentation, and water quality degradation, which collectively have greatly reduced the quantity and quality of intact reef habitat. Although restoration efforts have proceeded for several decades in estuaries throughout the eastern U.S., these efforts have traditionally focused on reversing the trend of declining landings rather than rebuilding sustainable oyster reefs that create habitat and other ecosystem services.

Restoring Rivers One Reach at a Time: Results from a Survey of U.S. River Restoration Practitioners

Despite expenditures of more than 1 billion dollars annually, there is little information available about project motivations, actions, and results for the vast majority of river restoration efforts. We performed confidential telephone interviews with 317 restoration project managers from across the United States with the goals of (1) assessing project motivations and the metrics of project evaluation and (2) estimating the proportion of projects that set and meet criteria for ecologically successful river restoration projects.

Restoring Streams in an Urbanizing World

To be effective, urban stream restoration efforts must be integrated within broader catchment management strategies. A key scientific and management challenge is to establish criteria for determining when the design options for urban river restoration are so constrained that a return towards reference or pre-urbanization conditions is not realistic or feasible and when river restoration presents a viable and effective strategy for improving the ecological condition of these degraded ecosystems.

Riparian Vegetation: Degradation, Alien Plant Invasions, and Restoration Prospects

This paper examines the biogeography and the determinants of composition and structure of riparian vegetation in temperate and subtropical regions and conceptualizes the components of resilience in these systems. We consider changes to structure and functioning caused by, or associated with, alien plant invasions, in particular those that lead to breached abiotic- or biotic thresholds. These pose challenges when formulating restoration programmes. Pervasive and escalating human-mediated changes to multiple factors and at a range of scales in riparian environments demand innovative and pragmatic approaches to restoration. The application of a new framework accommodating such complexity is demonstrated with reference to a hypothetical riparian ecosystem under three scenarios: (1) system unaffected by invasive plants; (2) system initially uninvaded, but with flood-generated incursion of alien plants and escalating invasion-driven alteration; and (3) system affected by both invasions and engineering interventions. The scheme has been used to derive a decision-making framework for restoring riparian zones in South Africa and could guide similar initiatives in other parts of the world.

Riparian Vegetation: Degradation, Alien Plant Invasions, and Restoration Prospects

This paper examines the biogeography and the determinants of composition and structure of riparian vegetation in temperate and subtropical regions and conceptualizes the components of resilience in these systems. We consider changes to structure and functioning caused by, or associated with, alien plant invasions, in particular those that lead to breached abiotic- or biotic thresholds. These pose challenges when formulating restoration programmes. Pervasive and escalating human-mediated changes to multiple factors and at a range of scales in riparian environments demand innovative and pragmatic approaches to restoration. The application of a new framework accommodating such complexity is demonstrated with reference to a hypothetical riparian ecosystem under three scenarios: (1) system unaffected by invasive plants; (2) system initially uninvaded, but with flood-generated incursion of alien plants and escalating invasion-driven alteration; and (3) system affected by both invasions and engineering interventions. The scheme has been used to derive a decision-making framework for restoring riparian zones in South Africa and could guide similar initiatives in other parts of the world.

River Restoration in the Twenty-First Century: Data and Experiential Knowledge to Inform Future Efforts

Improving restoration designs and setting watershed priorities rely on collecting and making accessible this critical information. Information within the unpublished notes of restoration project managers is useful but rarely documents ecological improvements. This special section of Restoration Ecology is devoted to the current state of knowledge on river restoration.

Shrub Facilitation of Desert Land Restoration in the Horqin Sand Land of Inner Mongolia

To understand the status and roles of shrubs in recovery processes of desertified land in the semi-arid areas of China, we investigated the effects of shrub canopy on soil properties, organic litter, seed bank and understory herbaceous community properties in the Horqin Sand Land, Mongolia. The results showed that in shifting sand dunes, content of very fine sand, silt and clay, organic matter, total N and P, available P and soil moisture at 0–20cm depth was higher under remnant shrub canopies of Caragana microphylla and Salix gordejevii than in open space. These results suggest that shrubs created significant “islands of fertility” and had an important role in maintaining or augmenting herbaceous species richness in shifting sand dunes, and could improve soil properties and facilitate vegetation recovery for controlling desertification processes.

Soil Management Practices for Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems

This paper addresses the importance of soil organic carbon (SOC) for agro-ecosystems and GHG uptake and emission in agriculture, especially SOC changes associated with soil management. Soil management strategies have great potential to contribute to carbon sequestration, since the carbon sink capacity of the world’s agricultural and degraded soil is 50–66% of the historic carbon loss of 42–72 Pg (1 Pg=1015 g), although the actual carbon storage in cultivated soil may be smaller if climate changes lead to increasing mineralization. Since increasing SOC may also be able to mitigate some local environmental problems, it will be necessary to have integrated soil management practices that are compatible with increasing SOM management and controlling soil residual nutrients. Cover crops would be a critical tool for sustainable soil management because they can scavenge soil residual nitrogen and their ecological functions can be utilized to establish an optimal nitrogen cycle. In addition to developing soil management strategies for sustainable agro-ecosystems, some political and social approaches will be needed, based on a common understanding that soil and agro-ecosystems are essential for a sustainable society.

Applying Landscape-Ecological Principles to Regional Conservation: The Wild Country Project in Australia

Amidst other nongovernment initiatives such as Greening Australia (2004), The Wilderness Society Australia has launched the Wild Country Project (hereinafter Wild-Country) in partnership with other civil society organizations, government at state and local levels, industry and private landowners, and the Wildlands Project USA. Wild Country builds upon the Wilderness Society’s mission, namely, “to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes for the wellbeing and ongoing evolution of the community of life across Australia.”

Ecological Restoration Principles, Values, and Structure of an Emerging Profession

This book offers for the first time a unified vision of ecological restoration as a field of study, one that clearly states the discipline’s precepts and emphasizes issues of importance to those involved at all levels. In a lively, personal fashion, the authors discuss scientific and practical aspects of the field as well as the human needs and values that motivate practitioners. The book: 1) identifies fundamental concepts upon which restoration is based, 2) considers the principles of restoration practice, 3) explores the diverse values that are fulfilled with the restoration of ecosystems, and 4) reviews the structure of restoration practice, including the various contexts for restoration work, the professional development of its practitioners, and the relationships of restoration with allied fields and activities.

Forest landscape restoration handbook

This book has been written by a team of experts from a wide variety of institutions coordinated by ITTO and IUCN (see box overleaf). It explains the FLR concept and describes its main elements in chapters on adaptive management, landscape mosaics, landscape dynamics, stakeholder approaches, the identification of site-level options, hands-on site-level forest restoration and rehabilitation strategies, scenario modelling, and monitoring and evaluation.

Guía metodológica para la RESTAURACIÓN ECOLÓGICA del bosque altoandino

Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration: New Hope for Arid Lands

This book provides an introduction to the critically important challenge of desert and dryland restoration. It provides a brief introduction to the ecology of desert plants in southwestern North America, explores the causes of desertification and land abuse, and outlines the processes and procedures needed to evaluate sites and plan, implement, and monitor desert restoration projects. It should also prove useful to many people and groups involved in reserve or park management, farming, forestry, ranching, landscaping, gardening, and recreational development.

Insights Gained from Succession for the Restoration of Landscape Structure and Function

The study of succession provides valuable lessons for improving the quality of restoration programs. These lessons suggest that restoration tactics should focus on site amelioration, improving establishment success, and protecting desirable species from herbivory and competition during their development. Incorporation of physical heterogeneity in the early stages will foster mosaics of vegetation that better mimic natural landscapes.

Keep Asia Green – IUFRO World Series (4 Volumes)

This scientific publication project, led by Professor Don Koo LEE, Minister of the Korea Forest Service and Professor at the Seoul National University (SNU), has spanned over a period of several years, starting in early 2006. It has brought together around 100 forest scientists from the various regions in Asia Pacific, who jointly produced state-of-the-art assessments addressing major issues such as the status of forests in Asia Pacific, causes of forest degradation, and past and current rehabilitation efforts and achievements. But the book series also critically analyses national capacities in forest rehabilitation, existing research and education programmes on forest rehabilitation, and past and future initiatives to strengthen rehabilitation efforts.

leven Steps to Rehabilitation in the Succulent Karoo and Namib Desert

http://www.the-eis.com/data/literature/Eleven%20steps%20to%20rehabilitation%20in%20the%20succulent%20karoo%20and%20namid%20desert.pdf

Linking Restoration and Ecological Succession

Restoration ecology is deeply rooted in ecological succession yet seems, as a fast-emerging discipline, to be largely unaware of the potential benefits a closer examination of succession can provide. These benefits address both how to restore ecosystem function and structure as quickly as possible and the longer-term consequences of current restoration activities. Successfully restored ecosystems can be more or less sustainable without constant care. This state is only achievable within a framework that recognizes, implicitly or explicitly, the temporal dynamics that constitute successional processes.

Old Fields: Dynamics and Restoration of Abandoned Farmland

The book gives readers a broad understanding of why agricultural land is abandoned, the factors that determine the ecological recovery of old fields, and how this understanding contributes to theoretical and applied ecology. Twelve case studies from diverse geographical and climatic areas—including Australian rainforest, Brazilian Amazonia, New Jersey piedmont, and South African renosterveld—offer a global perspective on the causes and results of land abandonment. Concluding chapters consider the similarities and differences among the case studies, examine them in the context of ecological concepts, and discuss their relevance to the growing field of restoration ecology.

Restauracio_n de Ecosistemas Mediterra_neos

El principal objetivo de esta publicacio_n es poner a disposicio_n de los estudiantes universitarios, de licenciatura y escuelas te_cnicas, pre y postdoctorales, asi_ como de te_cnicos que desarrollen su profesio_n en empresas y administraciones, un volumen en castellano que proporcione una visio_n amplia, actualizada e integrada sobre la restauracio_n ecolo_gica en nuestros ambientes mediterra_neos.

The Lakes Handbook, Volume 2: Lake Restoration and Rehabilitation

The Lakes Handbook provides an up-to-date overview of the application of ecologically sound approaches, methods and tools using experience gained around the world for an understanding of lakes and their management. Volume one of the Handbook addresses the physical and biological aspects of lakes pertinent to lake management, emphasising those aspects particularly relevant to large, still bodies of water. Volume two then considers lake management, with particular emphasis on sustainability, restoration and rehabilitation.

Ecosystem restoration and management: Scientific principles and concepts

This chapter summarizes current thinking regarding ecological restoration from an ecosystem management point of view. The intended audience is natural resource professionals, natural resource interest groups, and interested members of the public.

A Framework for Debate of Assisted Migration in an Era of Climate Change

Assisted migration is a contentious issue that places different conservation objectives at odds with one another. This element of debate, together with the growing risk of biodiversity loss under climate change, means that now is the time for the conservation community to consider assisted migration. Our intent here is to highlight the problem caused by a lack of a scientifically based policy on assisted migration, suggest a spectrum of policy options, and outline a framework for moving toward a consensus on this emerging conservation dilemma.

A Restoration Practitioner’s Guide to the Restoration Gene Pool Concept

Choosing plant materials for each desired species is often one of the most difficult steps in developing a restoration plan. The Restoration Gene Pool concept was developed to clarify the options available to the ecological restoration practitioner in terms of plant materials. We present a decision-making flowchart incorporating the issues delineated in the Restoration Gene Pool concept. We intend to provide practitioners with a framework to make objective and defensible plant materials choices in keeping with the objectives and philosophy of the restoration project.

A Strategy to Assess River Restoration Success

A strategy is proposed according to which a set of indicators is selected from the total of 49 indicators to ensure that indicators match restoration objectives and measures, and that the required effort for survey and analysis of indicators is appropriate to the project budget. Indicator values are determined according to methods described in detailed method sheets. Restoration success is evaluated by comparing indicator values before and after restoration measures have been undertaken. To this end, values are first standardised on a dimensionless scale ranging from 0 to 1, then averaged across different indicators for a given project objective, and finally assigned to one of five overall success categories. To illustrate the application of this scheme, a case study on the Thur River, Switzerland, is presented.

Acceleration of Vegetation Succession on Eroded Land by Reforestation in a Subtropical Zone

Based on field investigations in the East River basin in Guangdong Province, south China, the processes of vegetation development and vegetation succession on bare slopes with high erosion rates are studied. Different reforestation measures have been applied to the slopes, which have resulted in very different processes of vegetation development and succession. On an experimental plot with burned forest but surviving roots, the vegetation restored naturally and quickly because there was little soil erosion. However, in the plots suffering from long-term severe soil erosion, natural vegetation recovery on these barren slopes is very slow. After 26 years, a barren slope has only been partly colonized by poorly developed vegetation composed of heliophilous herbages and scattered shrubs. On the other hand, plantation of some selected wood species on the slope land has dramatically accelerated the vegetation recovery and succession. The plots were reforested with plantation of Acacia auriculiformis in the early 1980s. Twelve years later, the vegetation cover of the artificial forests reached 90% and an understory vegetation community consisting of local species had naturally developed. Reforestation with suitable strategies may control erosion and greatly accelerate vegetation succession in the eroded slope land in the subtropical zones.

Anthropogenic Impacts on Lake and Stream Ecosystems, and Approaches to Restoration

Development of new methods, as well as derivation of more general conclusions from reviewing the effects of previous restoration efforts, are crucial to achieve progress in applied freshwater research. The papers contained in this Special Profile contribute on both counts, as well as illustrating the importance of well-designed research projects and monitoring programmes to record the effects of the interventions. Such efforts are vital if we are to improve our knowledge of freshwater systems and to elaborate the best and most cost- effective recommendations. They may also help in achieving a good ecological state or potential in water bodies by 2015, as demanded by the European WFD.

Application of Assisted Natural Regeneration to Restore Degraded Tropical Forestlands

Assisted natural regeneration (ANR) is a simple, low-cost forest restoration method that can effectively convert deforested lands of degraded vegetation to more productive forests. The method aims to accelerate, rather than replace, natural successional processes by removing or reducing barriers to natural forest regeneration such as soil degradation, competition with weedy species, and recurring disturbances (e.g., fire, grazing, and wood harvesting).