Restoration Ecology
How do plant communities change through time? Clementian succession
-community= "super-organism" -eqm concept and temperate biomes lead to ideas of dynamics -un-directional succession -climax (community replaces itself, it doesn't change anymore) -disturbance occasionally "resets" process -based on observed regularities is there always a climax community?
Response Diversity:
-diversity within a functional group; they respond differently to varying conditions -need response diversity so when conditions change, the system can maintain its functions -works under wider conditions; more resilient -response diversity helps with adaptability and transformation
Communities reflect what two things?
-environments (fundamental niche which is all the possible places that a species could survive in/under) -interactions (realized niche: what is actually happening, where the species actualy occurs in the environment)
Gifford Pinchot
-first director of US forest Service 1905 -father of ecological forestry -profit from timber, sustainably -"wise use", need to understand ecology in order to conserve -"greatest good" -utilitarian conservation ethic
Aldo Leopold
-forestry and wildlife management -developed a "land ethic" - extends community to include nature - pragmatic, respectful stewardship -several landmark resotration endeavors
What important information do you need to know in order to restore a site?
-how important is the history? -how important are the reference sites? -reference: what is it that you would like your restored site to look like -range in variability: what is a normal range of variability (sum or average of historical context) -legacy: how did we get here?
Difficulties to markets or creating a market:
-imperfect information -competition, drive prices down -people into market with different equity -who should pay? -is it fair? how does this change peoples' values
paying for ecosystem services: promise and peril
-incentive one at the expense of others -people bearing cost do not always get benefit-economically or environmentally -market value may not reflect everyone's value -substituteability
Calculating economic value of ecosystem services:
-know price value of one service -infer price value of other Stated and revealed preferences
Cultural Landscapes
-management reflects values and beliefs -conserving heritage by restoring sites - extebding heritage to include nature - Leopold: earasing our impacts -cultural restoration: embracing our impacts
complex adaptive systems:
-many components (diverse components that interact locally), interactions, feedbacks -non-linearities, self-organizing, complex..not complicated -no central control, command or plan -open system -boundaries are ambiguous
Non-linearities, thresholds
-more arrows in a system the more stable it tends to be -there are certain triggers that can cause drastic changes
John Muir
-naturalist, philosopher, writer -geology and botany -spiritual values of nature -preservation ethic
Last 50 years: global change and crisis and conservation: new managment practices:
-not so predictable natural world (before, they were using simple models) -populations and communities are complex not just complicated -complexity approaches: >feedbacks >nonlinearities >thresholds >regime shift
Important Characteristics of Soils:
-parent material: broken down components of soil (ex: sand, silt, etc.) -Structure: >particle size: determines what kind of aggregate structure you will have > aggregate structure: > bulk density: howmuch would intact soil weigh/volume, how much air is in the soil---greater aggregate bulk density = less bulk density >horizons >depth -organic matter
Can we go back to the past?
-perceptions of ecological management
Non-economic techniques for valuing ecosystem services:
-questionnaires and interviews -participatory approaches >what do x and y mean to each f you? >mapping -identifying hidden services: good reason to use non-economic techniques -quantity does not equal utility (when do people have threshold values)
Should we go back to the past?
-reflection on motivations -past better than restoration for present or future
Emergent Properties of a Complex Adaptive System
-self-organizing -adaptation -feedbacks, homeostasis -non-linear dynamics -thresholds
What common characteristics of plant communities do restorationists look at?
-starting point -biomes: general vegetation structure (temperature, precipitation -forms, groups: dominate vegetation types (geology, hydrology, regional climate) -Alliance and associations: dominant and diagnostic (defines plant community) species (topography, local climate, disturbance regimes)
Abiotic Effects (Plant's basic needs)
-temperature -light -moisture (acquiring water) -required minerals -substrate
Divisions of Ecosystem Services:
-use value: >direct use (provisioning) > indirect use (regulating) option value (supporting) (falls in between use and non-use) -non-use value: >legacy/altruistic (future services) >intrinsic value (cultural)
Figuring out costs of ecosystem services:
-what is the market price of the product produced from service -cost of damage: how much will it cost to fix it -cost of replacement: how much would it cost o artifically replace this
George Perkins Marsh
-wrote Men and Nature - humans cause degredation -got publics attention -many complex system ideals -advocated conservation, sustainability, and restoration -he realized fisheries were being exploited
What are the multiple roles of historical knowledge?
>Information: reference, range of variability, legacy >cultural connections: sense of place (residents want to connect to their surrounding or connect to their past?), redress for damage (restore what has been damaged; human conscience) >for the future: understand impacts, possible trajectories
Practices for managing a predictable natural world(based on Clementian ideas): 1920s-1960s (ecological mangament: fisheries, forestry, wildlife)
>Population dynamics to find out maximum sustainable yield >Community dynamics lead to: -manage succession -habitat requirements
Levels of Public attention to ecosystem services: (Most noticed | | Least noticed)
>Provisioning: things we extract (food, timber...) >Regulating: things we don't extract, but provide us with benefits (what would we have to pay if nature wasn't doing this for us?-air quality, groundwater recharge) >Cultural: things we value as people (recreation, sacredness, beauty >Maintaining: things and processes that keep the system going (soil stability, habitat, nutrients
simple rules that ecological interactions tend to follow:
>resource availability 1. components interact 2. local feedbacks form 3. feedbacks that allow organisms to persist are self-reinforcing 4. local structure emerge 5. basic ecological rules mean that similar patterns emerge again and again
b/c of hysteresis...
>you cannot go back to the state you were previously in > creates new feedbacks -look at all conditions that did not exist before
How do characteristic plant communities form according to Frederic Clements?
Holistic concept: -species respond to one another -communities organize through interactions among species -associations are self-organized systems: "super-organisms" -succession of communities, equilibrium and disturbance -environmental gradient aligns at peaks and valleys (ecotones)
How do plant communities change through time? Complex systems view and Complexity approaches
Interactions organize communities due to: -lots of disturbances -environmental fluctuations -changing "slow variables" -cross-scale interactions (systems collapse bc of this, when lower level is driven by higher level processes Complexity approaches: -regularities And deviations -human --- environment feedbacks
Native Aloes
Land in a constant feedback system of degredation, no grass unless under a tree, tree decrease impact of rain so wouldnt seal the soil, ppant resistant shrubs to help facilitate grass growth
Example of tricky markets:
REDD: -rich countries pay to pollute -people get kicked off of their land -weak governance
Big Environmental Changes:
Response Diversity options for reorganizing Positive feedback systems which amplifies success and a new regime forms
Fluctuating environment:
Response diversity can increase negative feedbacks which sustain function and regulation of system
Whatis the default behavior of a complex adaptive system?
Self-organization
Supporting services: (Costanza et. al. 2011)
Services that maintain basic ecosystem processes and functions such as soil formation, carbon fixation, and habitat for animals, these services affect human well-being indirectly by maintaining processes necessary for provisioning, regulating, and cultural services
Revealed Preference:
These people chose x over y (what people actually do)
Production Possibility Frontier
Trade-offs do not always fall on the curve: -could fall beneath it if: >legacies of past land use >poor management >past degredation
How do you get to restoration? Environmental Paradigms
Trends in society---> human-nature relations--> applied science
Restoration Ecology
What can we achieve? What can we do?
Ecology
What will happen/what's happening
Restoration for the Future:
adaptability, sustainability (make sure we can continue to adapt)
Complex adaptive systems has what two characteristics?
adaption: response to changing conditions diversity: networks of connections that provide resilience, flexibility, buffering
Ball and Basin Model
alternative stable states, sometimes system will not be able to return to where it was, crossed a threshold too different from origin
Positive Feedback:
amplifies effect of x on y "impelling"
What role doe diversity play in a CAS?
it allows adaptation... adaptive capacity to: -maintain crucial functions -re-organize in new configuration all in response to disturbances and environmental changes
Restoration for the Present:
functionality, benefits
Restoration related practices: Rehabilitation
goal: productivity, services (wildlife habitat, range lands)
Restoration related practices: Reclamation
goal: soil, stability, safety (mines, landfill, phytoremediation(use of plants to restore soil and abstract toxins)
Restoration related practices: ecological engineering, landscape design
goals: social benefits using ecological processes (e.g. stormwater control)
non-linear:
gradual change in x leads to a funky change in y
Stable states:
hysteresis: multiple pathways are possible -when there's an unstable eqm: forward path does not = backward path -as conditions change you reach a threshold, more change can trigger a regime shift
Positive feedback Loops
impel change
Synergies of services:
increase in one service leads to increase in others (not always at the same time or in the same place)
Trade-offs of services:
increase yield of one service leads to the decrease in another (not always at the same time or in the same place)
How do characteristic plant communities form according to Henry Gleason?
individualistic concept: -Species occur according to environmental tolerances -communities arise where species share range -associations are coincidence -turnover: colonization and extinction of populations (none of the lines line up on the graph)
Ecosystem managment
intended to guarantee the continued well-being of the restored ecosystem thereafter
Structure and behavior self-organizes through...
interactions
threshold:
level of x variable where behavior changes
Redundancy:
multiple things in one function group -could play different roles in other categories -could perform differently under other conditions
State variables
objects that are amounts of something, one variable affects another
Regulating Services: (Costanza et. al. 2011)
services that regulate different aspects of the integrated system these services are generally not marked but have clear value to society
Negative feedback loops
stabilize, regulate change
Values
what should happen (restoration ecology is value driven)
Stated Preference:
would you prefer x over y
Negative Feedback:
dampens effect of x on y "stabilizing"
Functional Diversity:
different roles provide range of system functions -there are different categories of functions -system works better, more efficient
Novel Ecosystems: Critics
-Attitude: defeatist, sell-out -Values: discarding the value of historical systems -perception: few systems are truely un-restorable -moral hazards: excuse to give up on tough problems(legislation and gov't might give up) -step backward
Novel Ecosystems: Advocates
-Attitude: realistic, strategic -Values: need to think about today and tomorrow -Perception: full restoration not feasible in most systems -Moral Hazards: avoids the danger of false promises step forward
Complex Adaptive Systems
-Diverse Components -Localized Interactions (Not all interactions are equal) -selection
Interactions lead to...
-Feedbacks, x-->y-->x interaction feeds back to x -what affects x can either be y or secondary effect (i.e. z) -feedback systems create and make-up ecosystems
Environmental Paradigms in Restoration Ecology:
1. Eccocentric (restore and have nature in and of itself, inherant value) 2. Meliorative (make ecosystem work better for us)
Approaches to Ecological Restoration(Succession): (Matsler & Kidd)
1. Ecosystem for humans (dynamic, novel) 2. ecosystem with humans (fluid, novel) 3. ecosystems apart from humans (historic)
Filter Concept in Assembly
1. Historic filter-Does it arrive (affected by biotic filter[this can affect who can arrive]) 2. Physiological filter- Can it grow, survive, and reproduce?...Abiotic conditions (affects biotic filter[ outcomes of competition depend on some aspect of abiotic conditions) 3. Biotic filter- Does it successfully compete and defend itself? (can affect who can arrive (1.), can change abiotic conditions (2.)
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment four categories of ecosystem services: (Costanza et. al. 2011)
1. Provisioning services 2. regulating services 3. cultural services 4. supporting services
Restored Ecosystems should be:
1. historical: return to historic trajectory 2. functional: to be self-renewing or autogenic 3.Sustainable: point where assistance from restorationists is not needed
Ways to use Ecosystem Service Concepts:
1. identifying multiple services and the diversity of benefits (to different ppl at diff times) 2. Analyzing trade-offs between services; costs and benefits (where on the frontier do ppl want to be? does everyone agree) 3. Valuing ecosystem services: input (changes in the supply of ecosystem services) --> outputs (changes in human welfare, in monetary terms 4. payment for ecosystem services (PES): payments or credits to offset tradeoffs and costs
Natural Order to ecological issues and priorities: three frameworks; hierarchy of needs
1. primary succession (plant community formation on bare or sterile substrate)---> restoration 2. filter concept in assembly 3. Degree of degradation---> starting point of restoration
Basic timeline for restoration:
A: primary processes are fully functional (recovery only requires improved management of plant removal or damages) <biotic threshold> B: primary processes are functional: recovery requires vegetation manipulation <abbiotic threshold) C: Primary processes are nonfunctional: recovery requires modification of the physical environment -identify what processes are not working
Ecological Restoration
Action and interactions: manipulation, creation, disturbances, protection, etc.
What is the "filter" metaphor?
Addresses the community assembly and combines both fundamental and realized niches i.e.: (Potential species pool-fundamental) Historic filter layer: does it arrive? Physiological filter layer: can it grow, survive, and reproduce? Biotic filter: Does it successfully compete and defend itself? (Observed vegetation-realized)
How do get these payments?
By creating a market
What are ecosystem services? (Costanza et. al. 2011)
Ecosystem services are the benefits people derive from function ecosystems, the ecological characteristics, functions, or processes that directly or indirectly contribute to human well-being
Defining Benefits of ecosystems:
Ecosystems and biodiversity: -biophysical structure or process/natural capital (subset attributes that provide services: vegetation cover, net primary productivity) -function (slow water passage, biomass) ----------- -service (flood protection, products) ----------- Human wellbeing: -benefits (contribution to health and safety) -(econ) Value (products, protection)
Approaches to Ecological Restoration: (Matsler & Kidd)
Methods/results: 1. Ecosystem for humans(restoration should be based on a realistic evaluation of site conditions rather than on a romantic notion of the past) 2. ecosystem with humans(understanding the interactions between social and ecological factors is essential for both designing and implementing new restoration projects and for monitoring and evaluating their progress) 3. ecosystems apart from humans(restoration efforts are simply the beneficial activities of man intended to correct the consequences of previous deleterious events; restoration is an attempt to return an ecosystem to its historic trajectory;historic conditions are therefore the ideal starting point for restoration design
Ecological paradigms
Organism: basic while unit of life, reproduction, niche, environmental limitations Population: group of individuals of one kind, increase and decrease through time COMMUNITY: assemblage of species inyeracting in an area -ecosystem: biotic and abiotic components, interact directly and thru resource flows
What kind of system are ecosystems?
complex adaptive systems
thresholds/regime change/stable states emerge from...
complex interactions and feedbacks: -stabilizing feedbacks -impelling feedbacks -multiple causes per effect -opposing effects -time lagged effects
functional group:
components playing same role
What is optimal trade-off?
doesn't tell us what we should do
Attractor:
dynamic version of equilibrium point, want ideal state which is basin of attraction
Provisions Services: (Costanza et. al. 2011)
ecosystem services that combine with build, human, and social capital to produce food, timber, fiber, or other"provisioning" benefits
Cultural services: (Costanza et. al. 2011)
ecosystem services that combine with built, human, and social capital to produce recreation, aesthetic, scientific, cultural identity, or other cultural benefits
Natural Capital (Costanza et. al. 2011)
ecosystems that provide the services are sometimes referred to as "natural capital"; a stock that yields a flow of services over time
Crossing a threshold
feedback patterns change: -NFBs weaken -PFBs can impel system to transform -until NFBs re-emerge and stabilize system
Ecological Restoration Def.:
process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed
Restoration for the past:
re-creation of the past, connection to the past
regime shift:
system stabilizes in different configuration
What is restoration's implicit assumption?
the ecosystem was better in the past than it is today