Ecological Restoration

What is Sudbury known as

the moonscape

What metal was Sudbury destroyed for

Deep nickel deposits all over Sudbury - some of the deepest in Canada

What is an open roast bed

Essentially a large bonfire releasing metals from rock by cooking at low temp for 3-4 months releasing a crap ton of CO2 and using a lot of wood

Overview of what made Sudbury barren

Essentially we removed a bunch of plant life and then covered it in air pollution, acid soil, and heavy metal toxicity we end up with barren land

What does it mean if soil is ‘denuded’

Means even if plants were put there they simply would not grow

What was the original reason people complained about Sudbury

The dust was a huge problem because the soil was eroding since it was dry and not tied down by plant life causing issues for residents

What was the Sudbury super stack and when

In 1973, the solution to remove SO2 from the immediate environment was to move it so far up that when it was emitted, it would land somewhere else other than Sudbury

Results of land recovery research and agricultural techniques

Adding limestone reduce metal toxicity in soil, P was worse than N, trees would not survive on their own due to barren landscape so grass was planted as microsite for trees to get strong enough

Original Regreening recipe

Limed first to fix soil, fertilizer and then seed with 7 grass species and then later planting trees (only 6 trees chosen) - 13 species total

What does regreening in Sudbury look like now

Initial grasses that were planted were sun loving and have. been out competed by trees researchers are now doing forest floor transplants by moving 1 by 1 plots of forest floor to the donor site and species emigrate out to the rest of the forest rebuilding undergrowth

Historical definition of ecological restoration and why it does not work now

Returning the ecosystem to what it was before - non longer a viable options because of long term disturbances and a lack of data on previous conditions

Modern definition of ecological restoration

AN intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability

Definition of an ecosystem

dynamic communities of plants, animals and microorganisms interacting with their physical environment as a functional unit

When do we intervene in ecological restoration

When biotic and abiotic barriers that prevent the ecosystem from recovering on its own

Adaptive management curling example

When we set the rock in motion but continue to sweep based on how the initial push goes in order to keep the rock on trak

Primary succession

Starting from bare substrate and no plant matter

Secondary succession

Some seed bank remains, so you are not starting from scratch

What are the three general steps of succession

Pioneer species, intermediate species and then a climax community

Why do we need to think ahead in successional models in restoration

We need to ensure mid and late successional species can arrive for successional models of recovery or succession will stall

What is a threshold model

An ecosystem persists in a certain state til it reaches a threshold and can no longer tolerate the change it will flip suddenly to a very different ecological state

What is functional redundancy, and why is it important

When multiple species perform the same function in an ecosystem

Reversible Threshold model example

Prairie community types - three diff states exist short, mixed and tall grass with two thresholds that you can push between pretty easily

Irreversible Threshold model - what is it

There is a threshold, but it is always moving, so it is hard to pin point and very resistant to change

What is the cup and ball diagram in the irreversible threshold model

Pre disturbance the cup has less to travel to reach the threshold but post disturbance state it take a lot more energy to get to the pre-disturbance state

In a system with hysteresis is it one or the other state for one environmental condition set

No, it is not that two or more stable states can exist for one set of environmental conditions

An ecosystem is recovered when:

Contains sufficient biotic and abiotic resources are there to continue development without further assistance  

Attributes of a restored ecosystem

An assemblage of species similar to the reference, integrated into a larger ecological matrix, ideally native species, all functional groups required,

What makes a good reference model

undisturbed, local to the ecosystem of interest, same ecosystem type, self-sustaining, same recovery trajectory and representation

What is Ontarios Bill C-5

Created special economic zones to bypass environmental assessments in certain areas to make it faster which also means that with no risk assessment the consultation is affected with Indigenous Peoples 

What is Ontarios mining act

Basically says there is a duty to consult Indigenous peoples who may be affected by a proposed mining act

What are anthroposols

Human manufactures soils tailored to properties we want on the site

Steps of antroposol development

stock of resources, greenhouse studies, mini mine rock pile is then tested

What are suction lysimeters

pulls water out of the pores from the soil which is the water our plants use to grow so this tells us a lot  

What are the two kinds of restoration approaches with invasive species

controlling/managing invasive species or creating invasive resistant communities

Why is chemical control often better than mechanical control

Mechanical control can make it worse because lots of invasive species spread by plant fragments

What are the three methods of creating invasive resistant communities

dispersal filter (e.g. customs), abiotic intervention (make the environment inhospitable for invasive and suited to natives), or biotic interventions (use selective native plants that will compete really well against invasive)