Ecological Restoration Approaches

Vocabulary flashcards covering the levels of effort, specific methods, and tactics used in ecological restoration as detailed in the lecture transcript.

Prescribed Natural Regeneration

A level of restoration involving no direct biophysical manipulations or interventions at the site; it relies on natural plant succession by removing sources of disturbance.

Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR)

Ecological restoration where impacts from impairment are eliminated using nonintrusive biophysical manipulations that remove obstacles to recovery.

Partial Reconstruction

Restoration that relies partly on natural regeneration and partly on technical solutions, such as mechanized repair of the physical environment or subsoil ripping.

Complete Reconstruction

A level of effort where projects depend entirely on technical solutions and biophysical manipulations, often necessary for entirely destroyed sites like surface mines.

Plant Succession

The natural recovery process that most instances of prescribed natural regeneration consist of.

Nucleation Plantings

Small, densely planted areas, also called pocket plantings or tree islands, that serve as points of radiation for the spread of desirable species into adjacent areas.

Microcatchments

V-shaped or crescent-shaped berms, typically $1$ or $2\,m$ long and upwards to $30\,cm$ tall, used in arid land restoration to trap surface runoff and detritus.

Debris Mounds

Structures installed in arid, windy sites to capture drifting seeds and detritus to provide organic matter for vegetative cover on exposed sites.

Bird Perches

Constructed posts with crossbars that attract birds from nearby forests, allowing undigested seeds to pass through their guts and inoculate the soil beneath.

Cogon Grass (Imperata cylindrica)

A dense, invasive grass that is crushed with boards in Philippine ANR projects to facilitate the establishment of native forest tree saplings.

Miyawaki Method

An approach integrating potential natural vegetation and Japanese sacred forests, planting seedlings of the maximum possible number of tree species simultaneously.

Framework Species Method

Selecting indigenous tree species to shade out weeds and provide early resources like nectar or fruit to attract seed-dispersing animals and promote recruitment.

Enrichment Planting

The process of adding additional species to an existing natural forest or plantation, often to increase the density of trees with commercial value.

Rainforestation

A restoration approach using only indigenous and native tree species at close spacing ($2 \times 2\,m$) to shade weeds and improve structural habitat for wildlife.

Permanent Polycyclic Plantations

Mixed plantations containing several groups of main trees with different management objectives and varying lengths of productive cycles.

Multi-objective tree farming

Tree cultivation designed to obtain more than one type of wood product, such as combining timber production and biomass.