Journal ArticleDOI
Evaluating Ecological Restoration Success: A Review of the Literature
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TLDR
This article conducted a literature review to determine trends in evaluations of restoration projects and identify key knowledge gaps that need to be addressed, and quantified the extent that key attributes of success, including ecological (vegetation structure, species diversity and abundance, and ecosystem functioning) and socioeconomic, were addressed by these papers along with trends in publication and restoration characteristics.Abstract:
Assessing the success of ecological restoration projects is critical to justify the use of restoration in natural resource management and to improve best practice. Although there are extensive discussions surrounding the characteristics that define and measure successful restoration, monitoring or evaluation of projects in practice is widely thought to have lagged behind. We conducted a literature review to determine trends in evaluations of restoration projects and identify key knowledge gaps that need to be addressed. We searched the Web of Knowledge plus two additional restoration journals not found in the database for empirical papers that assessed restoration projects post-implementation. We quantified the extent that key attributes of success, including ecological (vegetation structure, species diversity and abundance, and ecosystem functioning) and socioeconomic, were addressed by these papers along with trends in publication and restoration characteristics. Encouragingly, we found the number of empirical evaluations has grown substantially in recent years. The increased age of restoration projects and number of papers that assessed ecological functions since previous reviews of the literature is also a positive development. Research is still heavily skewed toward United States and Australia, however, and identifying an appropriate reference site needs further investigation. Of particular concern is the dearth of papers identified in the literature search that included any measure of socioeconomic attributes. Focusing future empirical research on quantifying ecosystem services and other socioeconomic outcomes is essential for understanding the full benefits and costs of ecological restoration and to support its use in natural resource management.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades
Michael P. Perring,Michael P. Perring,Rachel J. Standish,Rachel J. Standish,Jodi N. Price,Michael D. Craig,Michael D. Craig,Todd E. Erickson,Katinka X. Ruthrof,Andrew S. Whiteley,Leonie E. Valentine,Richard J. Hobbs +11 more
TL;DR: This review of conceptual developments in restoration ecology over the last 30 years is reviewed 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.
Journal ArticleDOI
Contemporary forest restoration: A review emphasizing function
TL;DR: The science underpinning contemporary approaches to forest restoration practice is synthesized and some major approaches for altering structure in degraded forest stands are presented, and approaches for restoration of two key ecosystem processes, fire and flooding are described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological Restoration of Streams and Rivers: Shifting Strategies and Shifting Goals
TL;DR: In the field of river restoration, a plethora of new studies worldwide provide data on why and how rivers are being restored as well as the project outcomes as mentioned in this paper, and though there is well-accepted theory to support this, research on methods to implement and assess functional restoration projects is in its infancy.
Journal ArticleDOI
A global meta-analysis on the ecological drivers of forest restoration success
Renato Crouzeilles,Renato Crouzeilles,Renato Crouzeilles,Michael Curran,Mariana Simões Larraz Ferreira,David B. Lindenmayer,Carlos E. V. Grelle,José María Rey Benayas +7 more
TL;DR: A meta-analysis encompassing 221 study landscapes worldwide reveals forest restoration enhances biodiversity by 15–84% and vegetation structure by 36–77%, compared with degraded ecosystems.
Habitat Restoration - Do We Know What We're Doing? (Review)
James R. Miller,Richard J. Hobbs +1 more
TL;DR: There is a need to move to a clearer and more systematic approach to habitat restoration that considers appropriate goals linked to target species or suites of species, as well as the ecological, financial, and social constraints on what is possible.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
An overview of methods used to assess vegetation condition at the scale of the site
TL;DR: It is argued that information must be gained from broader scales to make decisions about the condition of individual sites and that spatial prediction of vegetation condition will only add value to on-ground assessments rather than replace them.
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Enhancing the Content Validity of Stated Preference Valuation: The Structure and Function of Ecological Indicators
TL;DR: The authors proposed guidelines to promote ecological content validity in survey scenarios and defensible use of ecological information for welfare analysis, illustrated through an application to migratory fish restoration and found that less structured treatment of ecological commodities may lead to an omission of information that is relevant to respondents and essential for valid welfare estimation.
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Determining appropriate goals for restoration of imperilled communities and species
Andrea S. Thorpe,Amanda Stanley +1 more
TL;DR: It is found that information on the structure and composition of pre-settlement communities does not exist in sufficient detail to set quantitative restoration targets, and it may not be an appropriate restoration goal given on-going global changes, including species invasions, habitat loss, and climate change.
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Natural Regeneration in Plantations of Native Trees in Lowland Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Community Structure, Diversity, and Dispersal Syndromes
Jerônimo Boelsums Barreto Sansevero,Pablo V. Prieto,Luiz Fernando Duarte de Moraes,Pablo José Francisco Pena Rodrigues +3 more
TL;DR: Investigation of plantations of native trees in the Poco das Antas Biological Reserve in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil indicated that the performance of plantations as a restoration strategy may differ, depending on initial species composition, planting density, and site conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Reciprocal Model for Meeting Ecological and Human Needs in Restoration Projects
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a model that shows that the ecological needs of the restoration area have the greatest potential to be met when human contributions are greatest, and the extent to which contributions meet needs is enhanced or constrained by factors ranging from available technology and funding to community support.