What is ecological restoration?
Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.
How long does it take for an ecosystem to recover?
While restoration activities can often place a degraded ecosystem on an initial trajectory of recovery relatively quickly, full recovery of the ecosystem can take years, decades, or even hundreds of years.
What is damage in ecology?
Damage refers to an acute and obvious harmful impact upon an ecosystem such as selective logging, road building, poaching, or invasions of non-native species.
What are some examples of environmental impacts?
Examples include: long-term grazing impacts, long-term over fishing or hunting pressure, and persistent invasions by non-native species. Destruction is the most severe level of impact, when degradation or damage removes all macroscopic life and commonly ruins the physical environment.
What is the role of assist recovery?
Assisting recovery can be as simple as removing an invasive species or reintroducing a lost species or a lost function (like fire); or as complex as altering landforms, planting vegetation, changing the hydrology, and reintroducing wildlife.
Is restoration a substitute for conservation?
Restoration is not a substitute for conservation. While we can successfully restore biodiversity, structure, and function to a degraded ecosystem, ecological restoration is not a substitute for conservation, nor should the promise of restoration be used to justify destruction or unsustainable use. In reality, restoration may not succeed in ...
How do restorationists restore ecosystems?
To repair and restore ecosystems, restoration specialists apply concepts from the field of ecology. For example, in temperate coniferous forests, plant species provide food and shelter for various animals. The forest ecosystem provides important services, such as nutrient cycling, both for the animals that live there and for humans who use the forest for timber and recreation. To remain healthy, many forest species rely on periodic disturbances such as wildfires. However, some disturbances, such as deforestation, are so damaging that they may instead impair the normal functioning of the forest by increasing soil erosion or by eliminating wildlife habitat. Thus, restorationists must understand the ecosystem’s pattern of ecological disturbances. ( Disturbance ecology is the subdiscipline of ecology that explores the causes and consequences of both natural and anthropogenic [human-caused] disturbances.) In order to restore a deforested site, restoration ecologists often attempt to reverse the ecological changes caused by the removal of trees and other plants, the displacement of animals, and changes to the now-exposed soil (which may be more prone to drying and erosion after deforestation). Ecological succession, the long-term evolution of the structure of an ecosystem’s biological community that follows a disturbance event, is also an important part of the restoration process.
What is ecological restoration?
Ecological restoration, the process of repairing sites in nature whose biological communities (that is, interacting groups of various species in a common location) and ecosystems have been degraded or destroyed.
How have humans altered the ecosystem?
In many ecosystems, humans have altered local native populations of plants and animals, introduced invasive species, converted natural communities to extractive use (such as agriculture or mining ), fouled waters, and degraded soil resources . Ecological restoration focuses on repairing the damage human activities have caused to natural ecosystems ...
What are the environmental problems of the 21st century?
Solving the critical environmental problems of global warming, water scarcity, pollution, and biodiversity loss are perhaps the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Will we rise to meet them?
What is Ecological Restoration?
The first step of an ecosystem or landscape restoration project is the clear definition of the project’s goals. Project goals of “restoring native vegetation” or “recover a perturbation environment” are not acceptable. Instead, concrete goals are needed for the restoration, and restoration practitioners “create the conditions needed for recovery so that the plants, animals, and microorganisms can carry out the work of recovery themselves.”
What is the most important goal for ecological restoration?
The most important goal for ecological restoration is to create a self-supporting ecosystem that is resilient to perturbation and has no more intervention . Restoration of coral reefs seagrass beds and mangrove forests in the tropics is feasible. The difficulty levels are different depending on the various ecosystem types. Mangrove forest is likely the easiest habitat to save, then seagrass beds and finally coral reefs.
Why is ecological restoration important?
It’s not just about conserving the resources we have, but also preventing further damage to our environment and ensuring that future generations will be able to enjoy these natural resources as well.
What is restoration science?
Restoration ecologists and restoration practitioners use research, science and practice, and restoration science to create conditions needed for recovery to work toward ecosystem restoration. They support the diversity of biological species, aiming for more sustainable natural resources and land use in our future.
What is an example of a successful restoration on a relatively large scale?
An example of a successful restoration on a relatively large scale is the work of Guzman (1991) on the reefs on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The reefs had been affected by a combination of natural and human activities that resulted in ecosystem damage.
What is damage in ecology?
According to the Society of Ecological Restoration, “damage refers to an acute and obvious harmful impact upon an ecosystem such as selective logging, road building, poaching, or invasions of non-native species.”
What is the role of assisting recovery?
According to the Society for Ecological Restoration, “assisting recovery can be as simple as removing an invasive species or reintroducing a lost species or a lost function (like fire); or as complex as altering landforms, planting vegetation, changing the hydrology, and reintroducing wildlife.”
What is ecological restoration and what is it for?
According to the Ecological Restoration Society (SER) , ecological restoration consists of the application of processes that allow the recovery of those ecosystems that have been degraded , damaged and / or destroyed.
Ecological restoration: phases
Next we will see, step by step, what are the main phases that are carried out in any ecological restoration process :
Types of ecological restoration – examples
In this last section we will define the different types of ecological restoration that exist according to their purpose, as well as some examples of the most surprising restoration projects that have been carried out in different countries:
