Concepts in restoration ecology - Restoration Ecology - page 16

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Concepts in restoration ecology

Jelte van Andel and Ab P. Grootjans

2.1 The scope of restoration ecology Ecological restoration can focus on restoring entire

ecosystems or communities, or on the rescue or re-
introduction of certain target species. Ecosystems,
communities and populations function in a land-
scape context (Bell et al . 1997; see Chapter 3 in this
volume). Restoration efforts have profited much from
landscape concepts, such as spatial heterogeneity and
connectivity, and associated dynamic models. Land-
scape hierarchies - based on geomorphology, soil and
vegetation - have also been used to identify reference
ecosystems and associated plant communities to prior-
itize and guide restoration of disturbed ecosystems
(Palik et al . 2000). At the same time restoration stud-
ies can be used to advance the field of landscape eco-
logy, which can utilize the information provided by
restoration projects to improve and test basic ques-
tions, especially those linked to habitat function and
fragmentation. Restoration ecology has also bene-
fited much from experience in ecosystems research
(Ehrenfeld & Toth 1997; see Chapter 4 in this volume).
Methods have been developed to delineate ecosystem
boundaries, to assess nutrient fluxes within eco-
systems and to measure ecosystem attributes such as
primary production and structure. Methods also exist
to help choose appropriate restoration goals, for
example using vegetation types as references, and to
select target species, indicator species and ecosys-
tem attributes for evaluation. Going further, in order
to restore ecosystem functioning, it is necessary to
know how natural disturbances affect ecosystems.
Such information can only become available if vari-
ous scientific disciplines work together and provide
methods and information concerning how restoration
measures will affect damaged ecosystems. Restoration
projects may benefit from available knowledge on

Restoration ecology is the science of ecological
restoration, recently re-defined as 'the process of
assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has
been degraded, damaged or destroyed' (SER 2002;
www.ser.org). In an influential editorial in the key
scientific journal in the field, Restoration Ecology , then
editor William A. Niering wrote: 'Ecological restora-
tion will continue to provide important insights into
the way that ecological communities are assembled
and ecosystems function. There is no question that
restoration ecology is the wave of the future' (Niering
1997a). Conservation biologist Truman Young (2000),
wrote 'restoration ecology is the long-term future of
conservation biology', and the eminent biologist and
philosopher Edwin O. Wilson (2002) elaborated at
length on the same theme in his latest topic, The Future
of Life . Nature conservation sensu stricto focuses
on the maintenance of existing ecosystems, which
often demands long-lasting application of the same
management, such as grazing of mowing regimes.
Ecological restoration, however, may demand a much
more dynamic management approach, the more so
when there is uncertainty about the feasibility of
the planned trajectory and final goal of ecosystem
development (see Fig. 2.1). In view of what has been
explained in Chapter 1 in this volume, ecological
restoration comes close to nature conservation in the
case of the repair of a degenerated ecosystem back to
its previous intact state (called true restoration),
whereas rehabilitation and reclamation or ecological
engineering can be considered a contribution to
nature conservation or even the establishment of new
nature.

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