Restoration Ecology exam 2

CS: Virginia Wildlife Corridors

Over all of VA, priority given to dear and bears, aims to promote driving safety and reduce collisions through tracking animals and implementing uncerpasses+overpasses

CS: Maya Forest Corridor

Protected land bridge in Belize. Works as a bottleneck for two important mountain ranges, the Maya mountains and the Selva Maya.

Landscape heterogeneity

Different landscape patches are at different successional stages, often due to disturbance. Ex. Yellowstone fires

Fragmentation

Smaller habitats support smaller biodiversity, adn larger animals typically require a larger range so are most affected. Loss of top predators often leads to trophic cascades. Connected to theory of biogeography. Ex. Research in Brazilian Amazon

Edge effects

Biotic and abiotic conditions edge habitats experience that inner habitats don’t (windier, sunnier, more exposure to fire). Reduces habitat and may lead to fragmentation.

Types of habitat corridors (connectivity is key)

habitat corridors/crossings (overpasses and underpasses), stepping stones, connective habitat.

Buffer zones

Protect sensitive landscapes and have some allowed uses.

core natural areas (sensitive landscape areas)

sensitive landscape areas that maintain themselves, are large enough for top predators, conserve biodiversity, and have no humans. May cause tensions (ex. Quabbin reservoir in Massachusetts, Yellowstone wolves reintroduction)

Best reserve design:

Large, many close together and connected, with buffer zones.

CS: Rivanna River Restoration Project

Partnered with the city of Charlottesville to stabilize eroding river banks and improve water quality.

5 ingredients of soil

minerals, organic matter, living organisms, gas, water

Soil mineral classes

Sand, silt, and clay. Most inorganic materials come from bedrock breakdown (5,000 named minerals on earth, quartz, feldspar, and micas are most common). Required for plant life (N,P,FE)

Soil organic matter

Plant, animal, poop, dead tissue, decomposition. Indicates soil health, provides food, buffers pH changes, improves water holding capacity, etc.

protozoa and bacteria

Bacteria feed on organic material, protozoa feed on bacteria adn poop them out.

fungi

feed on dead tissue. Can break down 90% of organic matter. Only thing that can break down lignen/what makes roots hard.

nematodes

Tiny worms that can be good or bad, may consume pests or be parasitic to plants.

arthropods

insects

earthworms

engineer soil by digging tunnels and breaking down organic materials.

Mine tailings

Waste from mining operations that have been left to dry out adn must be restored to soil.

Aggrading soil steps:

1. bring back organic matter (biosolids, biochar, and compost. Bring back nutrients adn water retention)

2. Bring back nitrogen via fixing it with the three sisters (beans, squash, and corn) which make homes for nitrogen fixing bacteria

3. bring in vegetation to speed up the process and perform phytoremediation

phytoremediation

Plants extract heavy metals from soils adn store them in their stems, plants must then be removed.

Degrading soil

Too much N in soil causes problems (ex. golf courses). Practice rotational grazing to get things back to normal, topsoil removal, or chemical complexing to fix chemical issues

CS: Dam restoration in Oregon

Largest dam removal in US history on the Klamath river in Oregon, done for the good of salmon travel.

CS: Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion

Wetlands in Louisiana have been cut off from their natural flow with the Mississippi river because of levees. Alternative stable state theory.

Dams

Humans use to control flooding. Estimated 550,000 in the US. May change the shape of river banks by making them taller than they should be because of sediment buildup. Use soil cores to figure out if it should really be a floodplain.

Species that depend on disturbances

Manzanita need fire to burn off the wax coating on their seeds, Salmon need flooding to migrate, river ed gums need floods for water.

fish ladders

help fish to travel when small and medium dams can’t be removed.

Prescribed burns

Intentionally burning a landscape (often with drip torches) to allow for secondary succession. Often uses TEK and natural breaks.

Challenges of process restoration (dam removal and prescribed burns)

data must be thoroughly collected, there may be time lags from fixing the problem to seeing the result, adn it will impact surrounding stakeholders.

CS: Virginia Seagrass Reserve

Aims to restore eelgrass which was wiped out along the eastern Virginia coast by a hurricane using largescale seed broadcasting. It is working.

CS: Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge Prairie Restoration

Restoring Minnesota tallgrass prairie and wetlands after being used for monoculture farming, also restoring prescribed burns and fire to the landscape.

Ecosystem services

Provisioning, regulating (flood control, water purification, climate regulation), cultural, and supporting (photosynthesis, soil formation)

Changes to the Land: Four Scenarios for the future of Massachusetts Landscape

Second wave of land conversion in New England led to this project. Choices: Continuation, economic growth + regulation rollback, conservation is targeted, or work to be self-reliant.

Findings: ecological knowledge is necessary for making land decisions, we can utilize forests adn preserve them, land use choices impacts land more than climate change.

Led to new policies on land use and sustainable forestry.

CS: Red Spruce Assisted Migration

Assisted range expansion of the Red Spruce in North America, which is being outpaced by climate change.

CS: DREAM (Designed Regeneration through Assisted Migration)

Working to prevent zombie communities that are no longer in step with their ecosystems due to climate change. Work at temperate and boreal transition zones.

How do we pick which vegetation to reestablish?

Historic records (ex. pollen sediments), remnant environments nearby (undisturbed environments nearby), ecoregions

ecoregions

the area in which a species could survive based on conditions. Shifting due to climate change

3 types of assisted migration:

population migration (movement of a pop from one location to another in their existing range), range expansion, and species migration (movement to an entirely new location)

Types of restoration plant material

Seeds, Plug trays, live stakes, bare root, and container grown. Cost matters, adn they may often have low genetic diversity because the plants were cloned or mass produced. Northeast seed network is working to address regional gaps in the supply chain.