Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades
By M. Perring, R. Standish, J. Price, M. Craig, T. E. Erickson, K. Ruthrof, Andrew S. Whiteley, L. Valentine, Richard J. Hobbs. 2015
488 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Simultaneous environmental changes challenge biodiversity persistence and human wellbeing. The science and practice of restoration ecology, in collaboration with other disciplines, can contribute to overcoming these challenges. This endeavor requires a solid conceptual foundation based in empirical research which confronts, tests and influences theoretical developments. We review conceptual developments in restoration ecology over the last 30 years. We frame our review in the context of changing restoration goals which reflect increased societal awareness of the scale of environmental degradation and the recognition that inter-disciplinary approaches are needed to tackle environmental problems. Restoration ecology now encompasses facilitative interactions and network dynamics, trophic cascades, and above- and below ground linkages. It operates in a non-equilibrium, alternative states framework, at the landscape scale, and in response to changing environmental, economic and social conditions. Progress has been marked by conceptual advances in the fields of trait-environment relationships, community assembly, and understanding the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Conceptual and practical advances have been enhanced by applying evolving technologies, including treatments to increase seed germination and overcome recruitment bottlenecks, high throughput DNA sequencing to elucidate soil community structure and function, and advances in satellite technology and GPS tracking to monitor habitat use. The synthesis of these technologies with systematic reviews of context dependencies in restoration success, model based analyses and consideration of complex socio-ecological systems will allow generalizations to inform evidence based interventions. Ongoing challenges include setting realistic, socially acceptable goals for restoration under changing environmental conditions, and prioritizing actions in an increasingly space-competitive world. Ethical questions also surround the use of genetically modified material, translocations, taxon substitutions, and de-extinction, in restoration ecology. Addressing these issues, as the Ecological Society of America looks to its next century, will require current and future generations of researchers and practitioners, including economists, engineers, philosophers, landscape architects, social scientists and restoration ecologists, to work together with communities and governments to rise to the environmental challenges of the coming decades.
Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b521f8151655c911894365b21a214d999a46e928
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Ecological Modeling
In Global and Planetary Change
In Nature and Landscape Conservation
Citations in the corpus
- Restorative and regenerative: Exploring the concepts in the circular economy (2020, background): “…branch of ecology that aims to recover degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems (SER, 2002) through a suite of tools developed within the discipline for accelerating the recovery of damaged ecosystems (see Hobbs, 2018; Perring et al., 2015; Rohr, Bernhardt, Cadotte, & Clements, 2018).”
- Ecological theory provides strong support for habitat restoration (2017, background): “…approaches must start shifting from traditional, often rather passive site preservation and small-scale site-level restoration to the direction of large-scale, holistic restoration and conservation efforts, grounded on a solid theoretical basis (Higgs et al., 2014; Perring et al., 2015).”
- When good animals love bad restored habitats: how maladaptive habitat selection can constrain restoration (2017, background): “…for particular steps in this process, such as defining goals and measuring success (e.g. Society for Ecological Restoration 2004; Palmer et al. 2005), and more generally exploring the links between restoration and ecological theory (e.g. Lake 2001; Lake, Bond & Reich 2007; Perring et al. 2015).”
- Functional traits and ecosystem services in ecological restoration (2020, background): “If the loss of ecosystem services is a major concern in a world facing severe global changes (MEA 2005; IPBES 2019), services must be explicit targets in restoration programs (Ehrenfeld & Toth 1997; Funk et al. 2008; Montoya et al. 2012; Wortley et al. 2013; Laughlin 2014; Perring et al. 2015; Engst”
- Links between community ecology theory and ecological restoration are on the rise (2018, background): “The concept of stable states appeared less frequently than expected given the robust theoretical literature on its potential restoration applications (Perring et al., 2015).”