Cara R. Nelson

University of Montana | UMT · Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences

La humanidad enfrenta grandes desafíos en cuanto a la restauración de ecosistemas forestales, con compromisos y metas tanto nacionales como internacionales. En este contexto, la sociedad en general quizás como nunca antes, quiere restaurar sus ecosistemas forestales. ¿Pero qué es la restauración? ¿Cómo podemos restaurar un ecosistema forestal si no...

The Taskforce on Best Practices, established under the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is a collaborative effort of ca. 300 members from more than 100 global organizations that supports capacity development and knowledge dissemination to help achieve the vision of the United Nations Decade on Ecosyst...

Questions Selective herbicides are frequently used in ecological restoration to control invasive non‐native forbs and recover plant communities. However, the long‐term efficacy of this practice, its non‐target effects on native plants, and its role in facilitating secondary invasions are not well understood. Similarly, little is known about the ext...

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 (hereafter “UN Decade”) recognizes the critical need to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of the world’s ecosystems. Effective restoration of degraded ecosystems is of paramount importance for recovering biodiversity, ecosystem health and integrity, ecosystem goods and services, c...

Innovation in ecological restoration is necessary to achieve the ambitious targets established in United Nations conventions and other global restoration initiatives. Innovation is also crucial for navigating uncertainties in repairing and restoring ecosystems, and thus practitioners often develop innovations at project design and implementation st...

Recent global initiatives in ecosystem restoration offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve biodiversity conservation and human health and well-being. Ecosystems form a core component of biodiversity. They provide humans with multiple benefits – a stable climate and breathable air; water, food and materials; and protection from disaster and di...

Recent global initiatives in ecosystem restoration offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve biodiversity conservation and human health and well-being. Ecosystems form a core component of biodiversity. They provide humans with multiple benefits – a stable climate and breathable air; water, food and materials; and protection from disaster and di...

"To achieve the world’s ambitious restoration goals, conservation seed bank knowledge should serve as the foundation for scaling up restoration seed banks"

Executive Summary Mining has been, and remains, an integral part of human existence from Stone Age quarries through to the iron and coal that fueled the industrial revolution, to the new materials needed to support the shift to renewable energy. Mining and mining products are major contributors to national economies with mining value tripling in th...

Innovation in ecological restoration is necessary in order to achieve the ambitious targets established in United Nations conventions and other global restoration initiatives. Moreover, to navigate the uncertainties in repairing and restoring ecosystems, practitioners often develop innovations in project design and implementation. However, innovati...

Large areas of the Panama Canal Watershed have been converted to monocultures of teak ( Tectona grandis ), a non-native timber species that is generally not providing hoped-for economic and ecological benefits of Forest Landscape Restoration. Enrichment planting offers a potential strategy for revitalizing these underperforming plantations through...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is an ecologically important subalpine and treeline forest tree of the western U.S. and Canada. It is categorized as endangered by the IUCN and by Canada under the Species at Risk Act and was recently proposed for listing in the U.S. as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Whitebark pine populations...

As global commitments to restoration are underway, science is needed to support capacity to achieve meaningful gains for ecosystems and human communities. In Chile, identification and generation of appropriate plant material is a barrier to achieving major restoration goals under the Paris Climate Agreement. Understanding genetic differentiation am...

Recent global initiatives in ecosystem restoration offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve biodiversity conservation and human health and well-being. Ecosystems form a core component of biodiversity. They provide humans with multiple benefits – a stable climate and breathable air; water, food and materials; and protection from disaster and di...

To support the implementation of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and help achieve its goals, there is a need for a shared vision of ecosystem restoration. A key step in creating a shared vision of ecosystem restoration is to adopt principles that underpin the full set of ecosystem restoration activities. To this end, this brochure presents t...

Despite substantial conservation efforts, the loss of ecosystems continues globally, along with related declines in species and nature’s contributions to people. An effective ecosystem goal, supported by clear milestones, targets and indicators, is urgently needed for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and beyond to support biodiversity co...

There has been much recent interest in the concept of rewilding as a tool for nature conservation, but also confusion over the idea, which has limited its utility. We developed a unifying definition and 10 guiding principles for rewilding through a survey of 59 rewilding experts, a summary of key organizations’ rewilding visions, and workshops invo...

Context Literature on the ecological impacts of landscape change (LC) has increased dramatically over the last few decades. However, there has not been systematic evidence from a landscape ecology perspective about the evolution of research in this field as well as the main gaps in knowledge. Objectives Our objective was to track the advancement o...

Warming‐induced mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) outbreaks have caused extensive mortality of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis; WBP) throughout the species’ range. In the highest mountains where WBP occur, they cross alpine treeline ecotones (ATEs) where growth forms transition from trees to shrub‐like krummholz, some of which su...

Priority effects refer to the order or timing of species arrival, including how species that arrive early at a site either positively or negatively affect establishment, growth, or reproduction of species that arrive later. Despite the clear implications of priority effects for ecological restoration, there have been no reviews of how and where pri...

This Guidance for using the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions accompanies the Global Standard to provide the scientific basis and guidance for users.

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions lists the Criteria and Indicators, as adopted by the 98th Meeting of the IUCN Council in 2020.

Land clearing and ecosystem degradation are primary causes of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide, putting at risk sustainable options for Earth and humankind. According to recent global estimates, degraded lands already account for at least 1 and up to 6 billion ha. Given high rates of habitat degradation and loss of biodiversity...

Priority effects refer to the order or timing of species arrival, including how species that arrive early to a site either positively or negatively affect establishment, growth, or reproduction of species that arrive later. Despite clear implications of priority effects on ecological restoration, to date there are no reviews of how and where priori...

We argue that the need for a quality seed supply chain is a major bottleneck for the restoration of Chile’s native ecosystems, thus supplementing the list of bottlenecks proposed by Bannister et al. (2018). Specifically, there is a need for defining seed transfer zones, developing standards and capacities for properly collecting and storing seeds,...

Understanding the processes that control alpine treelines, the elevational limits of tree growth forms, has been a central question in ecology and is growing in importance with concern over climate change. Cool summer air temperatures are currently thought to be the ultimate limiter of upright tree growth at alpine treelines globally. However, wint...

Ecological restoration, when implemented effectively and sustainably, contributes to protecting biodiversity; improving human health and wellbeing; increasing food and water security; delivering goods, services, and economic prosperity; and supporting climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. It is a solutions-based approach that engag...

Ecological restoration, when implemented effectively and sustainably, contributes to protecting biodiversity; improving human health and wellbeing; increasing food and water security; delivering goods, services, and economic prosperity; and supporting climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. It is a solutions-based approach that engag...

Forbs play an important role in restoration seed mix diversity yet have been underrepresented in empirical seed transfer zone development. Alberta penstemon (Penstemon albertinus) is a native species in the Intermountain West that can grow in diverse habitats and supports native pollinators. In order to improve management efforts that involve seedi...

Record-breaking fire seasons are becoming increasingly common worldwide, and large wildfires are having extraordinary impacts on people and property, despite years of investments to support social–ecological resilience to wildfires. This has prompted new calls for land management and policy reforms as current land and fire management approaches hav...

Across the globe, mammalian faunal extinctions are poorly understood. Despite increasing risk of extinction, data are lacking on the causes of population declines, as well as ecological and biological considerations for conservation. Although the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) provides a catalog of global species status,...

Bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) is frequently used for restoration of native plant communities due to its wide geographic distribution, occurrence in a variety of plant communities, ability to grow in disturbed sites, as well as its ability to provides forage for wildlife and domestic animals. In order to improve management efforts t...

Resilience has become a common goal for science-based natural resource management, particularly in the context of changing climate and disturbance regimes. Integrating varying perspectives and definitions of resilience is a complex and often unrecognized challenge to applying resilience concepts to social-ecological systems (SESs) management. Using...

Despite substantial increases in the scope and magnitude of biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration, there remains ongoing degradation of natural resources that adversely affects both biodiversity and human well-being. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can be an effective framework for reversing this trend, by increasing the alignment betwe...

Seed transfer zones, which define the geographical relationship between adaptive traits and environmental factors, are increasingly used to determine the source populations that can be combined in restoration and revegetation. Climatic variables have been the most commonly used environmental data in transfer zone development, even though soils are...

Black chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) is an important shrub for restoration because it provides food and shelter to wildlife across a wide range of habitats. In order to improve management efforts that involve seeding or transplanting chokecherry, we assessed trait differences among 78 wild populations collected across the US Forest Service Norther...

Tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa) is a common, mid-successional species in the Intermountain West that is considered to be a high value revegetation species by the USFS Northern Region in wet sites and for mine reclamation. Additionally, it is a desirable forage species and serves as a larval host plant for multiple butterfly species. In or...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.), an ecologically important tree species in high-elevation ecosystems of western North America, is threatened by white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola Fischer) and increased pressure from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) due to climate warming. In addition, there is concern that...

As approaches to ecological restoration become increasingly large scale and collaborative, there is a need to better understand social aspects of restoration and how they influence land management. In this article, we examine social perspectives that influence the determination of ecological reference conditions in restoration. Our analysis is base...

Silvicultural thinning treatments to restore whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) are widely used in subalpine forests throughout the western United States (US) and Canada. The objectives of these treatments are to (1) improve the condition of whitebark pine at all ages, (2) to improve seedling recruitment processes, and (3) mitigate the damage caused...

Seed collection is a critical first step in the development of seed transfer zones. Collected seeds are used to assess variation among populations in potentially adaptive traits. Transfer zones are then developed by first relating variation in these traits to environmental variation on the landscape and then mapping this variation into spatially di...

Seed collection is a critical first step in the development of seed transfer zones. Collected seeds are used to assess variation among populations in potentially adaptive traits. Transfer zones are then developed by first relating variation in these traits to environmental variation on the landscape and then mapping this variation into spatially di...

In response to a critique by Higgs et al., this article clarifies the content and intent of the Society for Ecological Restoration’s (SER) International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration. Higgs et al. expressed concern that the SER Standards are not sufficiently underpinned by principles and risk disenfranchising some practitione...

White spirea (Spirea betulifolia) is a common shrub in the Intermountain West. The species is useful for revegetation, is highly attractive to native pollinators, and can recover quickly post-wildfire disturbance. To facilitate the use of this species for revegetation and restoration, we assessed ecotypic variation among populations and developed s...

Invasive species may alter selective pressures on native plant populations. Although there is some evidence that competition with invasive plants may lead to differences in competitive ability between populations that have experienced invasion and those that have not, previous results have varied among species but also among populations of the same...

Natural resource managers commonly use herbicides to control invasive weeds. This practice, however, can lead to secondary invasion by other invasive plants, unless measures such as seeding are taken to promote natives. Although there is evidence that seeding immediately after herbicide treatment adversely affects germination, there is little infor...

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are increasingly being used to control non-native invasive plants in areas where restoration is a management goal. However, the efficacy of sheep grazing depends on both its potential for controlling undesirable plants and its ability to promote natives. To date, few studies have investigated impacts of sheep grazing on...

Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis) is an important component of diverse ecosystems in the western United States and has a long tradition of use in restoration and reclamation. As a restoration species, it is fairly drought resistant, stands are persistent, and it is adapted to stabilization of disturbed soils. In order to improve management efforts...

Restoration is increasingly being used to reverse degradation and destruction of forest ecosystems. With increasing investment in restoration, there is an urgent need to develop effective programs to assess treatment efficacy and effects. We conducted a global review of forest restoration assessments, in order to identify geographic trends in the l...

Significant increases in tree mortality due to drought-induced physiological stress have been documented worldwide. This trend is likely to continue with increased frequency and severity of extreme drought events in the future. Therefore, understanding the factors that influence variability in drought responses among trees will be critical to predi...

To date, soils have been excluded from the development of seed transfer zone maps. While soils can influence adaptive plant traits, there has been mixed support for their influence relative to climate, and soils data has previously been difficult access. We assed patterns of trait variation for mountain brome (Bromus marginatus) in the USFS Norther...

Shrubs in general are important for revegetation, especially in riparian areas where they contribute substantially to ecosystem functions. One particularly important shrub in riparian communities in the USFS Northern Region is red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea ssp. sericea), which is an important species for riparian bank stabilization, reducing er...

http://ser2017.org/ser2017_livroresumos-site.pdf

http://ser2017.org/ser2017_livroresumos-site.pdf

El "Primer", o “Principios de la Restauración Ecológica (RE)”, publicado en 2004, es el documento de referencia de la disciplina. Resume el paradigma y establece el marco conceptual, objetivos, y definiciones. El planteo de ecosistemas de referencia, la distinción entre RE y ecología de la restauración (la práctica y la ciencia), o la identificació...

Restoration practitioners balance the desire to use locally adapted plant materials with the uncertainty of what constitutes “local.” Provisional seed transfer zones are intended to guide managers on how far plant materials can be moved during revegetation with the assumption that all populations within a zone will show similarly adapted traits. Th...

Forbs provide diversity in restoration seed mixes but are currently underrepresented in the development of seed transfer zones. In the western United States, pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is found across a range of elevations and habitats, making it a good all-purpose forb for use in revegetation projects. Pearly everlasting also prov...

Collaborative approaches to natural resource management are becoming increasingly common on public lands. Negotiating a shared vision for desired conditions is a fundamental task of collaboration and serves as a foundation for developing management objectives and monitoring strategies. We explore the complex socio-ecological processes involved in d...

Given increasing investments in ecological restoration around the globe, there is a need to develop standards of practice to improve professional training and encourage the highest quality of performance possible. Although professional certification is a mechanism for promoting and improving the profession, until now certification has not been avai...

Although the broad field of ecology and its role in understanding the distribution and diversity of life on earth is a central part of the natural sciences, there is currently no comprehensive ranking of academic institutions for this discipline, which has quadrupled in research volume and visibility over the past three decades. We assessed scholar...

The use of local, native plant materials is now common in restoration but testing for polyploidy in seed sources is not. Diversity in cytotypes across a landscape can pose special seed transfer challenges, because the methods used to determine genetically appropriate materials for seed transfer do not account for cytotypic variation. This lack of c...

In North America, herbicides are commonly used to control non‐native invasive plants on public wildlands. Little is known about the magnitude, efficacy and financial costs of this practice, although this information is crucial for policymakers, researchers, land managers, pesticide producers and the general public. In Canada and Mexico, herbicide u...

Gravel-bed river floodplains in mountain landscapes disproportionately concentrate diverse habitats, nutrient cycling, productivity of biota, and species interactions. Although stream ecologists know that river channel and floodplain habitats used by aquatic organisms are maintained by hydrologic regimes that mobilize gravel-bed sediments, terrestr...

To accurately predict how ecosystems will respond to climate change – and how management actions can influence such responses – scientists and managers need a better understanding of how and when biotic interactions modify climate–growth relationships. However, current research has largely ignored the role of competition in modulating climate–growt...

Local adaptation is used as a criterion to select plant materials that will display high fitness in new environments. A large body of research has explored local adaptation in plants, however, to what extent findings can inform management decisions has not been formally evaluated. We assessed local adaptation literature for six key experimental met...

This is the original R script used to prepare and analyze data for the publication"Wagner, V., Antunes, P.M., Irvine, M., Nelson, C.R. (2016)Herbicide usage for invasive non-native plant management in wildland ares of North America. Journal of Applied Ecology"Accompanying data:(1) herbicide usage data from the BLM, FSW and NPS (BLM_data.txt, FWS_da...

This is the original R script used to prepare and analyze data for the publication"Wagner, V., Antunes, P.M., Irvine, M., Nelson, C.R. (2016)Herbicide usage for invasive non-native plant management in wildland ares of North America. Journal of Applied Ecology"Accompanying data:(1) herbicide usage data from the BLM, FSW and NPS (BLM_data.txt, FWS_da...

Theory suggests that natural fire regimes can result in landscapes that are both self-regulating and resilient to fire. For example, because fires consume fuel, they may create barriers to the spread of future fires, thereby regulating fire size. Top-down controls such as weather, however, can weaken this effect. While empirical examples demonstrat...

The reality confronting ecosystem managers today is one of heterogeneous, rapidly transforming landscapes, particularly in the areas more affected by urban and agricultural development. A landscape management framework that incorporates all systems, across the spectrum of degrees of alteration, provides a fuller set of options for how and when to i...

Herbicides are widely used to control invasive non-native plants in wildlands, yet there is little information on their non-target effects, including on native plants that are intended to benefit from the treatment. Effects at the seed stage have been particularly understudied, despite the fact that managers commonly seed native plants immediately...

Wildland fire is an important natural process in many ecosystems. However, fire exclusion has reduced frequency of fire and area burned in many dry forest types, which may affect vegetation structure and composition, and potential fire behavior. In forests of the western U.S., these effects pose a challenge for fire and land managers who seek to re...