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Restoration Ecologists (restoration + ecologist)
Selected AbstractsA role for restoration ecologists in endangered community conservation?ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION, Issue 3 2001Paul Adam [source] A Striking Profile: Soil Ecological Knowledge in Restoration Management and ScienceRESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2008Mac A. Callaham Jr. Abstract Available evidence suggests that research in terrestrial restoration ecology has been dominated by the engineering and botanical sciences. Because restoration science is a relatively young discipline in ecology, the theoretical framework for this discipline is under development and new theoretical offerings appear regularly in the literature. In reviewing this literature, we observed an absence of in-depth discussion of how soils, and in particular the ecology of soils, can be integrated into the developing theory of restoration science. These observations prompted us to assess the current role of soil ecological knowledge in restoration research and restoration practice. Although soils are universally regarded as critical to restoration success, and much research has included manipulations of soil variables, we found that better integration of soil ecological principles could still contribute much to the practice of ecosystem restoration. Here we offer four potential points of departure for increased dialog between restoration ecologists and soil ecologists. We hope to encourage the view that soil is a complex, heterogeneous, and vital entity and that adoption of this point of view can positively affect restoration efforts worldwide. [source] The Challenge to Restore Processes in Face of Nonlinear Dynamics,On the Crucial Role of Disturbance RegimesRESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2007*Article first published online: 14 MAY 200, Anke Jentsch Abstract Increasingly, restoration ecologists and managers are challenged to restore ecological processes that lead to self-sustaining ecosystem dynamics. Due to changing environmental conditions, however, restoration goals need to include novel regimes beyond prior reference conditions or reference dynamics. In face of these fundamental challenges in process-based restoration ecology, disturbance ecology can offer useful insights. Here, I discuss the contribution of disturbance ecology to understanding assembly rules, ecosystem dynamics, regime shifts, and nonlinear dynamics. Using the patch and multipatch concept, all insights are organized according to two spatial and two temporal categories: "patch,event,""patch,multievent,""multipatch,event," and "multipatch,multievent." This concept implies the consideration of both spatial patterns and temporal rhythms inside and outside of a restoration site. Emerging issues, such as uncoupling of internal and external dynamics, are considered. [source] A Historical Perspective and Future Outlook on Landscape Scale Restoration in the Northwest Wisconsin Pine BarrensRESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2000Volker C. Radeloff Abstract The concurrent discussions of landscape scale restoration among restoration ecologists, and of historic disturbance pattern as a guideline for forest management among forest scientists, offer a unique opportunity for collaboration between these traditionally separated fields. The objective of this study was to review the environmental history, early restoration projects, and current plans to restore landscape patterns at broader scales in the 450,000 ha northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens. The Pine Barrens offer an example of a landscape shaped by fire in the past. In northwestern Wisconsin historically the barrens were a mosaic of open prairie, savanna, and pine forests on very poor, sandy soils. The surrounding region of better soils was otherwise heavily forested. Six restoration sites have been managed since the middle of this century using prescribed burns to maintain the open, barrens habitat. However, these sites are not extensive enough to mimic the shifting mosaic of large open patches previously created by fire. Extensive clear-cuts may be used as a substitute for these large fire patches so that presettlement landscape patterns are more closely approximated in the current landscape. We suggest that such silvicultural treatments can be suitable to restore certain aspects of presettlement landscapes, such as landscape pattern and open habitat for species such as grassland birds. We are aware that the effects of fire and clear-cuts differ in many aspects and additional management tools, such as prescribed burning after harvesting, may assist in further approximating the effect of natural disturbance. However, the restoration of landscape pattern using clear-cuts may provide an important context for smaller isolated restoration sites even without the subsequent application of fire, in this formerly more open landscape. [source] | ||||||||||