advancing the conservation and restoration of our planet’s terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems
Ecosystem Restoration
What is Ecosystem Restoration?
Ecosystem Restoration is the process of assisting in and accelerating the process of natural succession to help repair and restore altered and/or degraded ecosystems and the ecological processes that support, shape and control these natural systems.
Overview of Ecosystem Restoration
Ecological succession is the process of how biological communities change and develop over time (Clements). A climax community (Clements) is the final stage of ecological succession. The assemblage of plants and animals that form a climax community is largely determined by the abiotic environmental factors that shape the system.
In terrestrial ecosystems, the abiotic environmental factors of sunlight, precipitation, temperature, wind, lightning, topography, hydrology and soils all interact to shape ecological succession and determine the characteristics of the climax community. In aquatic ecosystems, light, water clarity, depth, temperature, flow, salinity, acidity, nutrients and substrate characteristics are the dominant environmental factors that determine the climax.
In natural ecosystems, these abiotic environmental factors interact with the diverse and often competing plants and animals of the region to determine what the climax community will be. They will, for example, determine whether an ecosystem is an upland versus a wetland, a grassland versus a forest, a seagrass meadow versus a subtidal soft bottom, or a tropical coral reef versus a temperate hard bottom marine community.
Successful ecosystem restoration projects have designs that closely align with or match the true or natural climax of the area or fall within a stage of the natural successional trajectory. In other words, climax communities are overwhelmingly determined by abiotic environmental factors and these factors will ultimately push the system to form the climax community. Misguided ecosystem restoration projects that restore areas with the wrong plants and animals are short-lived in nature and will, with time, succeed and change into the natural climax community for that area. To be effective, restoration ecologists need to identify the dominant environmental factors that shape ecological succession and restore with species that will help the system reach its natural climax community.
Ecosystem Restoration should be considered as a way our civilization can help accelerate natural succession. Without intervention, succession will naturally occur over a longer time frame until the climax community is reached, provided that plants, seeds, and animals are in the area, and natural dispersal mechanisms are still intact. Ecosystem Restoration is a way humans can assist nature in creating climax communities. Restored ecosystems remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans, and store it for long periods of time. In addition, restored ecosystems provide ecosystem services such as clean water and food.
Ecosystem Restoration
References
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