Download Biodiversity in Functional Restoration

Biodiversity in
Functional Restoration
Joan L. Walker
Southern Research Station
Clemson, SC
(UNEP 2010)

Biodiversity
◦ Variability among living organisms from all
sources and the ecological complexes of which
they are part; includes diversity within species,
communities, landscapes

Functional Restoration
◦ Restoration focused on restoring ecological
services that satisfy human needs or values
 Supporting (nutrient cycling, primary production)
 Provisioning (timber, fish, food crops)
 Regulating (climate, water supply, soil quality)
 Cultural (aesthetic values)
Definitions
(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005)

Benayas et al. analyzed results of 89
studies with multiple measures of
biodiversity and ecosystem services

Findings:
◦ Restoration increased provision of biodiversity
and ecosystem services by 44 and 25%
◦ Both remained lower in restored versus
reference systems
Meta-analysis: Restoration,
biodiversity, ecological services
Restored sites
exceeded degraded
sites
 But restored sites
were inferior to
reference sites
 Biggest response
tropical terrestrial
systems

Ecosystem services responses to
restoration for different biomes
Restored biodiversity correlated with
ecological services delivery
Beneyas et al 2009

Biodiversity, the
focal objective
◦ A conceptual model
Not really this simple!
Recipe for success…
(Brudvig 2011)
◦ Less studied aspects
of restoration

Biodiversity in
other functional
restorations
◦ Some thoughts
Dry
upland
seed
Nearby
dry
upland
site
Where is this talk going????
A conceptual model
Brudvig 2011
Regional species pool

◦ Sets bounds on levels and composition
Site-level factors
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Filters that facilitate or impede membership
Make a site suitable for target community
Efforts dictated by degradation
Approaches: Wide array of methods applied
Replace, remove topsoil
Channel reconstruction
Canopy manipulations
Restore disturbance regime
Species additions (focal, interacting)
Control invasive spp (many methods)
Factors and approaches

Landscape factors
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Conceptual relationships considered
Site size limits potential
Patches influenced by matrix, connectivity
Approaches: corridor or stepping stone
restoration
Historical contingency
◦ Timing and pre-restoration legacies (alternative
stable states, novel ecosystems, assembly
rules, threshold models)
◦ Approaches: manipulate timing, but
understand other factors (disturbance history
at site and landscape scales)
Factors (continued)
Emphasis on terrestrial systems,
plants confirmed
Regional Species Pool
RESTORATION
6%
0.5%
97%
Landscape factors
•4 Landscape
composition
•7 Connectivity to
remnant
•5 Patch size &
geometry
11%
10%
Historical
contingency
Site Level factors
•34 Abiotic conditions
•19 Habitat structure
•70 Biotic conditions
•17 Disturbance
regime
4%
78%
Site Level Biodiversity
•88 Species
•11 Functional
•0.5 Genetic
•4 Land-use legacies
•0.5 Species arrival
•0 Historical landscape
effects
•0 Year effects
4%
Regional Species Pool
RESTORATION
6%
0.5%
97%
Landscape factors
•4 Landscape
composition
•7 Connectivity to
remnant
•5 Patch size &
geometry
11%
10%
Historical
contingency
Site Level factors
•34 Abiotic conditions
•19 Habitat structure
•70 Biotic conditions
•17 Disturbance
regime
4%
78%
Site Level Biodiversity
•88 Species
•11 Functional
•0.5 Genetic
•4 Land-use legacies
•0.5 Species arrival
•0 Historical landscape
effects
•0 Year effects
4%

Large experiments needed; some variables
cannot be manipulated (meta-analyses)

Focus on what kinds of situations is
landscape effect likely to be more or as
important as site factors.

Similarly, consider the most likely conditions
for effects of ‘time factors’ and investigate
significance there first.
More landscape and historical
contingency research?
Regional Species Pool
RESTORATION
6%
0.5%
97%
Landscape factors
•4 Landscape
composition
•7 Connectivity to
remnant
•5 Patch size &
geometry
11%
10%
Historical
contingency
Site Level factors
•34 Abiotic conditions
•19 Habitat structure
•70 Biotic conditions
•17 Disturbance
regime
4%
78%
Site Level Biodiversity
•88 Species
•11 Functional
•0.5 Genetic
•4 Land-use legacies
•0.5 Species arrival
•0 Historical landscape
effects
•0 Year effects
4%
Does plant community diversity predict
other levels of diversity (e.g. consumers,
soil microbes)?
 Does species restored species diversity
relate to functional group diversity,
genetic diversity?

◦ Trait based approach may provide an avenue to
develop general predictive models of
biodiversity restoration…

Multi-species interactions
Less studied aspects of biodiversity
restoration

Things that are hard to see and measure
◦ Belowground processes, interactions

Things that take special expertise, equipment
◦ Assessing, evaluating genetic diversity and
significance

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Things that involve more than 2 or more
species or trophic levels
Things you learn from really big experiments
◦ Significance of restoration factors in contrasting site
types, or across ecosystems
Less studied aspects
of biodiversity
restoration
A really big experiment - sites
Stand & Landscape
Level Studies
 4 Focal landscapes
 3 Ecoregions
 Range of latitude
& longitude
Regional Level Study
 18 landscapes
 4 Ecoregions
 Expanded
geographic range
US Environmental Protection Agency Level III ecoregions map
indicating the location of target Department of Defense installation
and National Forests.

Significance of within species variation on
herbaceous community restoration
◦ Need for suitable seed transfer zones to protect genetic
diversity and support successful projects
◦ Better understanding of how within species diversity
affects community development (inter- and intra-specific
interactions, rhizosphere conditions, e.g.)

Ecology of seed production (weather, fire,
pathogens-interactions, e.g.)

Seedling establishment – frequency, significance
in natural systems

Value of functional surrogates, significance of
redundancy in functional groups
Some of my personal favorites
Biodiversity and the restoration of
other ecosystem services
Benayas et al 2009
KEY QUESTION:
 What do you want the plant community
(biodiversity) to do?
 Are there species or combinations of
species that do it better?

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Shift from taxa based diversity to
functional group (guild) based diversity
Some thoughts on biodiversity and
restoration of other ecosystm
services

Advantages to solving problems with
multiple species when you can
◦ Hedge bets for success
◦ Receive unknown benefits
Consider opportunities to increase
biodiversity in follow-up actions
 Relationships of ecosystem services to
biodiversity are not well- understood;
incorporate monitoring and installations
that can shed light on the subject

Some thoughts on biodiversity and
restoration of other ecosystm
services
Questions?
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