Restoration Ecology

As the wilderness metaphor has decreased in utility due to widespread human-driven environmental change, conservationists and restorationists have struggled to find new ways to inspire nature conservation. Some have suggested gardening as a new metaphor, but many are wary of its implications, particularly for animals viewed as threats or pests. Others, however, point out positive attributes for the metaphor including its focus on stewardship of nature which allows for positive human agency in ecosystems. We argue a gardening metaphor may also allow increased flexibility in approaches to biodiversity conservation, in part by allowing goals to be fit to communities and their specific cultural contexts. Wild gardening would seek to preserve global biodiversity while acknowledging the pivotal role humans now play in that process. Here we review the use of the garden metaphor over the last 25 years and discuss what wild gardening might mean for restoration. Consistent with a long history of environmental thought, we suggest such a metaphor will work best if it is coupled with a civic/stewardship ethic and a good dose of humility on the part of all gardeners.

After removing invasive plants, whether by herbicides or other means, typical restoration design focuses on rebuilding native plant communities while disregarding soil microbial communities. However, microbial–plant interactions are known to influence the relative success of native versus invasive plants. Therefore, the abundance and composition of soil microorganisms may affect restoration efforts. We assessed the effect of herbicide treatment on phytosymbiotic pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophic (PPFM) bacteria and the potential consequences of native and invasive species establishment post-herbicide treatment in the lab and in a coastal sage scrub (CSS)/grassland restoration site. Lab tests showed that 4% glyphosate reduced PPFM abundance. PPFM addition to seeds increased seedling length of a native plant (Artemisia californica) but not an invasive plant (Hirschfeldia incana). At the restoration site, methanol addition (a PPFM substrate) improved native bunchgrass (Nassella...

ABSTRACT Restoration of mangrove forests has to be a continuous process. It is important to reverse the loss of mangrove ecosystem worldwide by using various approaches as this ecosystem provides important ecosystem services such as habitat for organisms, recycling of nutrients, controlling floods, trapping sediments, erosion barriers and so much more. This paper addresses issues associated with the ongoing degradation of mangroves, objectives, opportunities well as challenges for mangroves restoration. As far as the restoration of mangroves is concern, it is emphasized to conserve mangrove forest so as to continue benefiting from them. Special emphasis is placed in coordinating efforts between natural and social sciences. However, it should also be noted that, restoring mangroves is only a partial solution, protection and conservation of those important remaining ecosystems, must be a campaign for all nations before too much is lost.

This paper describes the sequence of Alcoa’s bauxite mining and restoration operations in Western Australia, commencing with pre-mining surveys and geological exploration through to the preparation and extraction of the bauxite ore, the restoration process, and then monitoring. These methods have changed continually since operations commenced in 1963 as knowledge improved; however, this paper only describes the current procedures.

Despite this nation's massive effort during the past 90 years to build levees throughout the upper Mississippi Basin, mean annual flood damage in the region has increased 140% during that time. These levees exacerbate the flood damage problem by increasing river stage and velocity. Thus, rather than continuing to rely on structural solutions for flood control, it is time to develop a comprehensive flood management strategy that includes using wetlands to intercept and hold precipitation where it falls and store flood waters where they occur. History testifies to the truth of this premise: it was the rampant drainage of wetlands in the nineteenth century that gave rise to many of today's water resources management problems. The 1993 flood verifies the need for additional wetlands: the amount of excess water that passed St. Louis during the 1993 flood would have covered a little more than 13 million acres —half of the wetland acreage drained since 1780 in the upper Mississippi Basin. By strategically placing at least 13 million acres of wetlands on hydric soils in the basin, we can solve the basin's flooding problems in an ecologically sound manner.

Dense shrublands constitute highly hazardous fuels in Mediterranean countries. The combination of agricultural land abandonment and fire occurrence in many Mediterranean areas has led to a landscape dominated by shrublands where resprouter species are scarce or absent. Major goals in the management of these areas are to reduce both the fuel loads and their continuity and increase the resilience of the ecosystems by introducing resprouter species. We investigated the performance of one-year-old seedlings of native resprouters, that is, Pistacia lentiscus, Quercus ilex, and Rhamnus alaternus, in a combination of vegetation clearing and mulching with brush chipping in three sites with high amount of fuel load. The planting holes inside the shrublands showed lower radiation and soil surface temperature than those in the cleared areas, whereas soil water content was higher in the mulched holes than in the unmulched ones, especially when water availability was lowest. Seedling survival of Q. ilex and R. alaternus significantly increased within the shrubland; P. lentiscus showed the opposite effect, but its survival was enhanced by the mulching treatment. The three species grew faster in the cleared plots although, unexpectedly, mulching showed a negative effect on Q. ilex relative growth rate in diameter. Our results suggest that the combination of fuel control and reforestation as techniques for shrubland management is an appropriate option, at least in the short term, to redirect vegetation dynamics toward later successional stages, improving ecosystem resilience by the introduction of woody resprouter species.

High coral cover and topographic complexity are favorable qualities of a healthy coral reef. Because coral reef restoration is expensive and coral growth is naturally slow, there is a need to strategically arrange coral transplants to maximize coral cover and topographic complexity. Similarly, it is important to understand how differences in the life history characteristics of coral transplants can influence changes in the structural attributes of coral reefs. This study utilizes agent-based computer modeling to explore the different spatial scenarios of coral transplantation using corals with contrasting r- and K-selected life histories. Spatial indexes are used to compare coral cover and topographic complexity at incremental time scales, within which disturbance events are of minor importance in spatial structuring. The outcomes of the model suggest that even-spaced grided transplanting arrangements provide the fastest increase in coral cover and three-dimensional habitat space (topographic complexity) across large temporal scales (<30 years) for corals with r-selected life history strategies.

Mountain hollyhock, Iliamna rivularis (Douglas ex Hooker) Greene (Malvaceae) is a native wildflower of the intermountain west that commonly occurs in    aspen-fir communities. I.rivularis seed have high dormancy rates that limit its use in restoration and commercial seed production. We examined the germination of this species using scarification and stratification treatments commonly used to enhance germination of other forb species. Batches of seed were treated and stratified for 0, 8, or 16 weeks and then placed in an incubator. Germination was counted after 7, 14, and 21 days. The highest germination rates were achieved with a 15 sec. boiling water treatment, a 9 min. sulfuric acid treatment, and a 7 sec. mechanical scarification treatment reaching 41, 59, and 99% germination respectively. The study control reached a maximum of 5% germination.

This article will explore a problem which is related to our moral obligations towards species. Although the re-creation of extinct animals has been discussed to some degree both in lay deliberations as well as by scientists, advocates tend to emphasize the technological and scientific value of such an endeavour, and the "coolness" factor (Sherkow and Greely Science, 340(6128), 32–33, 2013). This article will provide an argument in favour of re-creation based on normative considerations. The environmentalist community generally accepts that it is wrong to exterminate species, for reasons beyond any instrumental value these species may have. It is often also claimed that humanity has a collective responsibility to either preserve or at least to not exterminate species. These two beliefs are here assumed to be correct. The argument presented here departs from and places these two ideas in a deontological framework, from which it is argued that when humanity causes the extinction of a species, this is a moral transgression, entailing a residual obligation. Such an obligation implies a positive duty to mitigate any harm caused by our moral failure. In light of recent scientific progress in the field of genetic engineering, it will be argued that humanity has a prima facie obligation to re-create species whose extinction mankind may have caused, also known as de-extinction.

The reforestation of Polylepis lanata (Rosaceae) seedlings is limited by the poor knowledge about the environmental conditions that needs to survive and grow. The objective of the study was to determine how altitude and microsite affect seedlings survival and growth. An experiment was implemented with seedlings gathered from the forest and planted on 15 plots distributed in five altitudes (2,690–3,900 m; three replicates per altitude). In each plot, seedlings were planted in  heterogeneous microsites. The study was carried out in the community Pajchanti in Northwestern
Cochabamba, Bolivia. Survival and growth were assessed 14 and 51 months after planting. We measured altitude of plots and microsites around of each plant (cover shrubs, stones, moss, herbs, grassland, depth of humus and slope). The data analysis was conducted through the fit of generalized linear models, model selection and inference multi-model based in Akaike Information Criteria. The altitude and shrub cover had a positive effect on seedlings increasing their probability of survival; both were the most important variables. The humus, cover of stones and shrubs around the seedlings also improved the growth rates. The reforestations should be carried out in middle altitudes, 3,000 to 3,600 m, but in safe microsites which protect to the seedlings from a possible environmental stress outside of the forest, due to human disturbance  of soil and vegetation.

A variety of chemicals including foaming agents are used to aid in the protection of forest resources from the wild land fires. The fire-fighting foams (FFFs) are formulations composed principally of surfactants. As a part of Japanese national project, environmentally inert FFFs have been developed. There is an emerging need for testing the impacts of these FFFs on the living organisms composing the typical landscapes or ecosystems in Japan. In the present report, we aimed to describe our latest attempt for assessing both the short-tem and long-term impacts of FFFs in aquatic (fresh water) and semi-aquatic (wetland) ecosystems , by employing the laboratory-sized model assays (preliminary studies) and the biotope-based observation, respectively. In the biotope assays which was based on the observation in compact biotopes mimicking the fresh water environments and wetland, both the acute and long-term eco-toxic impacts of two FFFs (soap-based and synthetic detergent-based) were assessed. Spraying of synthetic detergent-based foam formula was shown to be more toxic compared to soap-based formula and mock water treatment.

The value of ecological restoration has seen considerable criticism and defense in environmental ethics over the past three decades. Its proponents point to the human and ecological benefits of restoration projects, while its critics characterize restoration as impossible, arbitrary, delusional, or domination. In this paper, I draw attention to the theoretical and practical merits of conceiving ecological restoration as practices of environmental moral repair, building upon and extending Margaret Urban Walker's work on moral repair and reparative justice. This analysis identifies several notable benefits of a reparative-justice model of ecological restoration while also taking up some significant theoretical and practical challenges.