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The SER International Primer on Ecological Restoration
Contents
1. Overview
2. Definition of Ecological Restoration
3. Attributes of Restored Ecosystems
4. Explanations of Terms
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5. Reference Ecosystems
bin文件夹6. Exotic Species
7. Monitoring and Evaluation
8. Restoration Planning
9. Relationship between Restoration Practice and Restoration Ecology
10. Relationship of Restoration to Other Activities我的老师有点坏
11. Integration of Ecological Restoration into Larger Programs
Section 1. Overview
Ecological restoration is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, and sustainability. Frequently, the ecosystem that requires restoration has been degraded, damaged, transformed or entirely destroyed as the direct or indirect result of human activities. In some cas, the impacts to ecosystems have been caud or aggravated by natural agencies such as wildfire, floods, storms, or volcanic eruption, to the point at which the ecosystem cannot recover its predisturbance state or its historic developmental trajectory. Restoration attempts to return an ecosystem to its historic trajectory. Historic conditions are therefore the ideal starting point for restoration design. The restored ecosystem will not necessarily recover its former state, since contemporary constraints and conditions may cau it to develop along an altered trajectory. The historic trajectory of a verely impacted ecosystem may be difficult or impossible to determine with accuracy. Nevertheless, the general direction and boundaries of that trajectory can be established through a combination of knowledge of the damaged ecosystem pre-ex
isting structure, composition and functioning, studies on comparable intact ecosystems, information about regional environmental conditions, and analysis of other ecological, cultural and historical reference information. The combined sources allow the historic trajectory or reference conditions to be charted from baline ecological data and predictive models, and its emulation in the restoration process should aid in piloting the ecosystem towards improved health and integrity. Restoration reprents an indefinitely long-term commitment of land and resources, and a proposal to restore an ecosystem requires thoughtful deliberation. Collective decisions are more likely to be honored and implemented than are tho that are made unilaterally. For that reason, it behooves all stakeholders to arrive at the decision to initiate a restoration project by connsus. Once the decision to restore is made, the project requires careful and systematic planning and a monitored approach towards ecosystem recovery. The need for planning intensifies when the unit of restoration is a
complex landscape of contiguous ecosystems.
Interventions employed in restoration vary widely among projects, depending on the extent and duration of past disturbances, cultural conditions that have shaped the landscape, and contemporary constraints and opportunities. In the simplest circumstances, restoration consists of removing or mod
ifying a specific disturbance, thereby allowing ecological process to bring about an independent recovery. For example, removing a dam allows the return of an historical flooding regime. In more complex circumstances, restoration may also require the deliberate reintroduction of native species that have been lost, and the elimination or control of harmful, invasive exotic species to the greatest practicable extent. Often, ecosystem degradation or transformation has multiple, protracted sources, and the historical constituents of an ecosystem are substantially lost. Sometimes the developmental trajectory of a degraded ecosystem is blocked altogether, and its recovery through natural process appears to be delayed indefinitely. In all of the cas, however, ecological restoration aims to initiate or facilitate the resumption of tho process which will return the ecosystem to its intended trajectory.
When the desired trajectory is realized, the ecosystem under manipulation may no longer require external assistance to ensure its future health and integrity, in which ca restoration can be considered complete. Nevertheless, the restored ecosystem often requires continuing management to counteract the invasion of opportunist species, the impacts of various human activities, climate change, and other unforeeable events. In this respect, a restored ecosystem is no different from an undamaged ecosystem of the same kind, and both are likely to require some level of ecosystem
management. Although ecosystem restoration and ecosystem management form a continuum and often employ similar sorts of intervention, ecological restoration aims at assisting or initiating recovery, whereas ecosystem management is intended to guarantee the continued well-being of the restored ecosystem thereafter. Some ecosystems, particularly in developing countries, are still managed by traditional, sustainable cultural practices. Reciprocity exists in the cultural ecosystems between cultural activities and ecological process, such that human actions reinforce ecosystem health and sustainability. Many cultural ecosystems have suffered from demographic growth and external pressures of various kinds, and are in need of restoration. The restoration of such ecosystems normally includes the concomitant recovery of indigenous ecological management practices, including support for the cultural survival of indigenous peoples and their languages as living libraries of traditional ecological knowledge. Ecological restoration encourages and may indeed be dependent upon long-term participation of local people. Cultural conditions in traditional cultures are currently undergoing unprecedented global change. To accommodate this change, ecological restoration may accept and even encourage new culturally appropriate and sustainable practices that take into account contemporary conditions and constraints. In this regard, the North American focus on restoring pristine landscapes makes little or no n in places like Europe where cultural landscapes are the norm, or in large parts of Africa, and Latin America, where
ecological restoration is untenable unless it manifestly bolsters the ecological ba for human survival.
What makes ecological restoration especially inspiring is that cultural practices and ecological process can be mutually reinforcing. Accordingly, it is not surprising that interest in ecological restoration is growing rapidly worldwide and that, in most cas, cultural beliefs and practices are drawn upon to help determine and shape of what is to be performed under the rubric of restoration.
The definition prented below, the one officially endord by the Society for Ecological Restoration, is sufficiently general to allow a wide variety of approaches to restoration, while giving prominence to the historically-rich idea of "recovery."
Section 2. Definition of Ecological Restoration
Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.
Section 3. Attributes of Restored Ecosystems
This ction address the question of what is meant by "recovery" in ecological restoration. An eco
system has recovered - and is restored - when it contains sufficient biotic and abiotic resources to continue its development without further assistance or subsidy. It will sustain itlf structurally and functionally. It will demonstrate resilience to normal ranges of environmental stress and disturbance. It will interact with contiguous ecosystems in terms of biotic and abiotic flows and cultural interactions.
The nine attributes listed below provide a basis for determining when restoration has been accomplished. The full expression of all of the attributes is not esntial to demonstrate restoration. Instead, it is only necessary for the attributes to demonstrate an appropriate trajectory of ecosystem development towards the intended goals or reference. Some attributes are readily measured. Others must be assd indirectly, including most ecosystem functions, which cannot be ascertained without rearch efforts that exceed the capabilities and budgets of most restoration projects. 1. The restored ecosystem contains a characteristic asmblage of the species that occur in the reference ecosystem and that provide appropriate community structure. 2. The restored ecosystem consists of indigenous species to the greatest practicable extent. In restored cultural ecosystems, allowances can be made for exotic domesticated species and for non-invasive ruderal and getal species that presumably co-evolved with them. Ruderals are plants that colonize disturbed sites, whereas getals typically grow intermixed with crop species.
3. All functional groups necessary for the continued development and/or stability of the restored ecosystem are reprented or, if they are not, the missing groups have the potential to colonize by natural means.
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reproducing populations of the species necessary for its continued stability or development along the desired trajectory.野蛮装卸
5. The restored ecosystem apparently functions normally for its ecological stage of development, and signs of dysfunction are abnt.
6. The restored ecosystem is suitably integrated into a larger ecological matrix or landscape, with which it interacts through abiotic and biotic flows and exchanges.
7. Potential threats to the health and integrity of the restored ecosystem from the surrounding landscape have been eliminated or reduced as much as possible.
8. The restored ecosystem is sufficiently resilient to endure the normal periodic stress events in the local environment that rve to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem. 9. The restored ecosystem is
lf-sustaining to the same degree as its reference ecosystem, and has the potential to persist indefinitely under existing environmental conditions. Nevertheless, aspects of its biodiversity, structure and functioning may change as part of normal ecosystem development, and may fluctuate in respon to normal periodic stress and occasional disturbance events of greater conquence. As in any intact ecosystem, the species composition and other attributes of a restored ecosystem may evolve as environmental conditions change.
Other attributes gain relevance and should be added to this list if they are identified as goals of the restoration project. For example, one of the goals of restoration might be to provide specified natural goods and rvices for social benefit in a sustainable manner. In this respect, the restored ecosystem rves as natural capital for the accrual of the goods and rvices. Another goal might be for the restored ecosystem to provide habitat for rare species or to harbor a diver genepool for lected species. Other possible goals of restoration might include the provision of aesthetic amenities or the accommodation of activities of social conquence, such as the strengthening of a community through the participation of individuals in a restoration project.
Section 4. Explanations of Terms
雪羔Various technical terms are introduced throughout this document. Some of the terms may be unfamiliar to readers who are not ecologists, while others have multiple connotations from differential usage. To reduce the potential for misunderstandings, key terms are explained in the manner in which they are ud in this document.
An ecosystem consists of the biota (plants, animals, microorganisms) within a given area, the environment that sustains it, and their interactions. Populations of species that compri the biota are collectively identified as the biotic communit. This community is frequently gregated on the basis of taxonomic status (e.g., the inct community) or life form (e.g., the tree community). Asmblages of organisms can also be recognized by their functional roles in the ecosystem (e.g. primary producers, herbivores, carnivores, decompors, nitrogen fixers, pollinators), in which ca they are known as functional groups. The physical or abiotic environment that sustains the biota of an ecosystem includes the soil or substrate, the atmospheric or aqueous medium, hydrology, weather and climate, topographic relief and aspect, the nutrient regime, and the salinity regime. Habitat refers to the dwelling place of an organism or
community that provides the requisite conditions for its life process.
An ecosystem can be recognized in a spatial unit of any size, from a microsite containing only a few individuals to an area showing some degree of structural and taxonomic homogeneity such as a small-scale and community-bad "wetland ecosystem," or a large-scale and biome-bad "tropical rainforest ecosystem." Ecological restoration can be conducted at a wide variety of scales, but in practice all ecosystem restoration should be approached with a spatially explicit landscape perspective, in order to ensure the suitability of flows, interactions and exchanges with contiguous ecosystems. A landscape consists of a mosaic of two or more ecosystems that exchange organisms, energy, water and nutrients. A legitimate and indeed important object of much ecological restoration is the reintegration of fragmented ecosystems and landscapes, rather than focusing on just a single ecosystem.
A natural landscape or ecosystem is one that developed by natural process and that is lf-organizing and lf-maintaining. A cultural landscape or ecosystem is one that has developed under the joint influence of natural process and human-impod organization. Many grasslands and savannas are maintained in large part by the human activities such as the regular ignition of surface fires for hunting, gathering or animal husbandry. In Europe, many of the species-rich meadows are cultural ecosystems that aro following forest removal in the Bronze Age, and have been maintaine
d through mowing and asonal grazing by livestock. The repair of a damaged meadow qualifies as ecological restoration, even though the meadow ecosystem that is lected as the landscape of reference derives from human activities. In another example, a den coniferous forest currently occupies large parts of western North America. In the 19th century, much of this forest was open and
park-like with copious herbaceous cover, owing to the frequent u of fire and plant species utilization by indigenous tribal people. This woodland emed natural and its condition was sustainable under the regime of tribal land usage. The return of this ecosystem to an open, park-like woodland, occupied and utilized in the traditional tribal manner, qualifies as ecological restoration. Sustainable cultural practices are traditional human land us that maintain biodiversity and productivity. In this context, the biota is valued as much for its importance to ecosystem stability as it is for its short-term worth as commodities. Perhaps all natural ecosystems are culturally influenced in at least some small manner, and this reality merits acknowledgement in the conduct of restoration.
The terms degradation, damage, destruction and transformation all reprent deviations from the normal or desired state of an intact ecosystem. The meanings of the terms overlap, and their application is not always clear. Degradation pertains to subtle or gradual changes that reduce ecological integrity and health. Damage refers
to acute and obvious changes in an ecosystem. An ecosystem is destroyed when degradation or damage removes all macroscopic life, and commonly ruins the physical environment as well. Transformation is the conversion of an ecosystem to a different kind of ecosystem or land u type.
