Restoration Ecology - Science topic

Ongoing research shows that included in Goal 15 (out of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals) is the restoration of the natural environment of biodiverse ecosystems in post-industrial areas, the restoration of highly biodiverse forest ecosystems, the development of afforestation programs, which should already be implemented on a large scale by 2020 (Task 15.1. included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: By 2020, ensure the protection, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and other ecosystems, particularly forests, wetlands and drylands, and mountains, in accordance with international commitments). has still not been implemented in some countries. In some countries, in recent years, there are still many post-industrial areas, including mining spoil heaps, that have not been developed in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, i.e. restoration of the natural environment has not been undertaken. In addition, in some countries, still instead of sustainable forest management consisting of strict protection of old-growth, natural highly biodiverse forest ecosystems, restoration of biodiverse forest ecosystems referring to the natural ones occurring for thousands of years in a specific area characterized by a specific mix of natural and climatic conditions, industrial cultivation of only some tree species for industrial cutting is carried out, and predatory pseudo forest management consisting of cutting all trees in a specific area is carried out, including cutting down old-growth forests and by the way destroying entire biodiverse ecosystems, which also results in accelerated degradation, soil barrenness, deterioration of water retention and local microclimate. On the other hand, it has been widely known for many years on the basis of the results of thousands of research works that restoration of the natural environment, including biodiverse forest ecosystems, increases the scale of sustainability in terms of human-biosphere, climate and biodiversity relations. In turn, the restoration of the natural environment in post-industrial and other areas degraded by unsustainable human activity increases the areas of the biosphere and reduces the scale of the negative effects of civilizational unsustainable human activity, including reducing the scale of environmental pollution and reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The effect is to slow down the progressive greenhouse effect and thus reduce the scale of global warming. Reducing the scale and slowing down the progressive process of global warming generates a reduction in the scale of the negative effects of the ongoing climate change, i.e. a reduction in the scale and frequency of weather anomalies and climatic disasters, including, above all, the increasingly severe periods of drought covering more and more land areas, in addition to the yearly occurrence of higher and higher summer temperatures, increasingly severe shortages of drinking water and/or increasingly violent storms with torrential rains and floods. Therefore, the restoration of the natural environment in areas degraded by the development of industry, ongoing mining activities or unsustainable agriculture in the industrial formula, including the development of afforestation programs, restoration of biodiverse forest ecosystems contributes to improving the local microclimate, improves water retention processes, slows down the processes of soil barrenness and/or reverses these processes, contributes to the restoration of highly fertile and biodiverse microbial soils, results in increasing the scale of ecological and climatic sustainability, increases the scale of resilience of the planet's highly biodiverse natural ecosystems and/or flexibility to adapt to a changing climate, and improves livelihoods for humans as well. Therefore, taking into account the above-mentioned great positive qualities of the processes of restoration of the natural natural environment, including biodiverse forest ecosystems then, in parallel, the scale of strict nature conservation should be increased, including increasing the areas of natural ecosystems, including natural natural ecosystems and those being restored. In this way, the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere will increase more slowly, and thus the process of global warming, which has been accelerating over the past several decades, can be slowed down. In view of the above, due to the high level of relevance of the process of restoration of the natural environment, reclamation of areas of natural ecosystems devastated by man, protection of highly biodiverse natural ecosystems for the climate and biosphere of the planet and also for future generations of people, restoration of the natural environment, including biodiverse forest ecosystems in post-industrial and other areas degraded by unsustainable human activities should be considered one of the priority elements of the green transformation of the economy. Implemented fully and seriously, the green transformation of the economy, in which an important role is played by pro-climate, pro-environmental, pro-biodiversity and thus realistically also pro-social policies, should also fully take into account the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Unfortunately, this is still not practiced in all parts of the world.

I am conducting research on this issue. I have included the conclusions of my research in the following article:

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT AS A KEY ELEMENT OF THE PRO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMY TOWARDS GREEN ECONOMY AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

What do you think about this topic?

What is your opinion on this issue?

Please answer,

I invite everyone to join the discussion,

Thank you very much,

Regards,

Best wishes,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

In recent years, more and more different political options during election campaigns before parliamentary and other political elections have added to their election slogans the issues of sustainable economic development, green transformation of the economy, increasing pro-climate and pro-environmental policy measures, including a significant increase in the development of renewable energy sources, decarbonization of industry, development of sustainable organic agriculture, sustainable energy-efficient construction, electromobility, recycling, development of sustainable tourism, development of urban agglomerations in accordance with the concept of green smart city, significant increase in the scale of reclamation of natural environments in areas degraded by industrial development, increase in the scale of protection of biodiverse natural ecosystems, natural forest ecosystems, increase in the scale of reforestation and other aspects of a sustainable green circular economy, and after winning the elections, they only slightly implement their election promises to citizens, or do not implement these promises at all. Since the scale of this phenomenon is growing so the importance of the discussions held in the issues of not fulfilling election promises on the issues of sustainable economic development, green transformation of the economy, increasing pro-climate and pro-environmental policy measures by the political options winning the elections is also increasing. When this kind of situation is repeated repeatedly in a certain country then citizens begin to consider the possibility of recognizing this kind of unreliable political activity as antisocial and perhaps also not in accordance with basic human rights and the Constitution.

I am conducting research on this issue. I have included the conclusions of my research in the following article:

I invite you to discuss this important topic for the future of the planet's biosphere and climate.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

What do you think about this topic?

What is your opinion on this issue?

Please answer,

I invite everyone to join the discussion,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

In my opinion, climate protection combines with the protection of the biosphere and the biodiversity of the planet's natural ecosystems in many ways. Many issues of climate protection also affect the issue of the biosphere and biodiversity of the natural ecosystems of the planet. On the other hand, by taking care of the state of nature, protecting the natural environment, strengthening systems for protecting the biosphere, and improving solutions for protecting the biodiversity of the planet's natural ecosystems, we also contribute to protecting the planet's climate. Many issues in the aforementioned issues of protecting the planet's climate, biosphere and biodiversity of the planet's natural ecosystems are interrelated. For example, increasing the scale of reforestation, restoration of natural ecosystems, restoration of biodiverse forest ecosystems both constitute an important element in the protection of nature, the biosphere and biodiversity of flora and fauna but are also an important element in the protection of the climate, both the microclimate locally and the climate globally. In recent times, the change in trends occurring in many urban areas from the ubiquitous years ago so-called concretization, that is, the removal of green areas, the creation of wide sidewalks, concrete squares, asphalt surfaces, etc. to greening, creation of new city parks, reduction of concretes, reduction of areas covered with concrete and asphalt, creation of additional green areas, lawns, flower meadows, pocket parks, etc. is also an important element of pro-climate and at the same time pro-environmental, sustainable economic development and a feature of a modern city developing in accordance with the green smart city concept. Also, the replacement of unsustainable, implemented according to the formula of intensive, production agriculture with sustainable organic agriculture at the same time fits into the pro-environmental and pro-climate policy. Conservation of water resources, implementation of water efficiency systems, creation of rainwater catchment facilities for use in agriculture and irrigation of parks and home gardens is also an important element of sustainable development, green closed-loop economics and protection of both the biosphere and the planet's climate. Also, the creation of new landscape parks, conservation areas, natural national parks is an important element in the protection of the biosphere, biodiversity and the planet's climate.

Key aspects of the negative effects of the ongoing process of global warming and the associated necessary acceleration of the processes of green transformation of the economy in order to decarbonize the economy, slow down the process of global warming, protect the climate, biosphere and biodiversity of natural ecosystems of the planet I described in the article:

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

What do you think about this topic?

What is your opinion on this issue?

Please answer,

I invite everyone to join the discussion,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

On the successional processes, as we know, initially there is no plant and by the time plants are gradually coming into the ecosystem through various ways. On the restoration project, succession may get faster by artificial planting. Planting tree may cut some successional steps and bring the ecosystem directly to the late stage. However, I am curious, is it important for planting grass and shrub before planting tree? it seems that the successional process is not as fast as planting trees directly, but I am wondering with the effectiveness. 

If any of you can explain about it, I would appreciate it.

Bests

The restoration of biodiverse natural forest ecosystems in civilization-degraded areas, post-industrial areas, post-mining spoil heap areas, post-agricultural areas characterized by permanent drought and depleted soil, areas increasingly exposed to the negative effects of climate change, including global warming, etc., is one of several key elements of restoration. is one of several key elements in the reclamation of the natural environment, and thus also one of the main factors in the green transformation of the economy, building a sustainable closed-loop economy, achieving the goals of sustainable development, protecting the planet's biosphere, biodiversity and climate. The technological advances taking place should help smoothly carry out the green transformation of the economy, protecting nature, biodiversity and the planet's climate. Accordingly, new technologies, including Big Data Analytics, artificial intelligence and other Industry 4.0/5.0 technologies, should be used in the restoration of biodiverse natural forest ecosystems. However, the aforementioned new technologies, including Big Data Analytics technology, artificial intelligence and other Industry 4.0/5.0 technologies, especially when they are used in large computerized data centers then consume large amounts of energy. Therefore, in order for the process of using new technologies, including Big Data Analytics, artificial intelligence and other technologies that consume large amounts of energy when they are used in large data centers to fit in with the trend of green transformation of the economy and the realization of sustainable development goals, they should be powered by electricity generated from renewable and zero-carbon energy sources.

I described the key issues of opportunities and threats to the development of artificial intelligence technology in my article below:

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

What do you think on this topic?

What is your opinion on this issue?

Please answer,

I invite everyone to join the discussion,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

In recent years, large-scale green investment projects have been launched in some countries, which are being carried out as part of the green transformation of the economy to build a sustainable, green, zero-carbon zero-growth and closed-loop economy. The essence of the ongoing large-scale implementation of the aforementioned processes in some regions of the world is to carry out a pro-environmental and pro-climate transformation of the classic growth, brown, linear economy of excess into a sustainable, green, zero-carbon zero-growth and closed-loop economy. One of the economic regions of the world where these issues have been prioritized, ambitious plans have been set out to smoothly carry out the green transformation of the economy is the European Union. One of the many components of the green transformation of the economy is the large-scale creation and implementation of new green technologies and eco-innovations. Well, in recent years, many new green technologies and eco-innovations are being created in the framework of clean emission-free energy, biodegradable materials, electromobility, cleaning up the polluted environment, increasing the scale of recycling, economical use of natural resources, conservation of clean water resources, restoration of green areas in cities, reforestation of wasteland and civilization-degraded areas, and so on. If such processes of efficiently carried out green transformation of the economy are carried out on a large scale in all countries of the world, there is still a chance to significantly slow down the progressive process of global warming and save the net from the projected global climate catastrophe. Therefore, the chance to save at least in part the remaining biosphere of the planet, to save the biodiversity of the natural ecosystems of the planet, i.e. the greatest value of the planet Earth that has been created by the many millions of years of evolution of life on the planet, increases. The issue of conservation, protecting the planet's biosphere and saving the remaining biodiversity and its restoration through the use of new green technologies and eco-innovations man can at least partially repair what he destroyed in the past. Man should protect the biosphere and climate, should restore the biodiversity of natural ecosystems with a view to the future of future generations of people, the future of the planet, the achievements of the evolution of life on planet Earth, and so on. If man in his nature is friendly towards the biosphere and not selfish towards the planet, the only planet he has, then he probably wants to save the climate, biosphere and biodiversity from total degradation. Accordingly, in recent years there has been a growing demand for the creation and implementation of new green technologies and eco-innovations. New research and implementation centers and new research projects are being established to develop new technological solutions so that the process of green transformation can be carried out more efficiently and quickly. And time is of the essence, as the process of global warming continues to accelerate and there is little time left to reach a critically high state of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Besides, thanks to the developing cooperation between scientists and researchers studying this issue, working in different parts of the world, the chances of realizing the plan to save the climate, biosphere and biodiversity from total degradation are becoming greater.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

And what is your opinion on this topic?

What is your opinion on this issue?

Please answer,

I invite everyone to join the discussion,

Thank you very much,

Warm regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

The above text is entirely my own work written by me based on my research.

Copyright by Dariusz Prokopowicz

In the advent of climate change, conditions suitable for local species could be significantly altered. Hence, planting characteristic tree species of the planting sites may not be feasible. There are several pieces of literature recommending the use of composite provenance in order to restore climate-resilient characteristic tree species/forests. However, the issue of outbreeding depression is a concern. So, my question is: in the advent of climate change, would it be wise to use planting material from composite provenance for forest restoration?

Progressive climate change, including the process of global warming, is causing increasing droughts and desertification of areas. The scale of areas with decreasing rainfall is growing. Surface and sub-surface water resources are decreasing. Water resources for irrigation of agricultural fields are decreasing. Drinking water supplies are also declining.

In view of the above, the question becomes increasingly topical:

What do you think about this topic?

What is your opinion on this subject?

Please reply,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

Regards,

Dariusz

what is the general trend in the R:S ratio of tree species at the seedling stage? early-successional vs. late-successional which ones have big R:S ratio? i see some contradicting results published. Plus, could these trend vary with tropical and temperate tree species?

Has anyone been able to successfully cryopreserve coral oocytes? I've only found one case for a Gorgonian (Junceella juncea) through vitrification (Tsai et al. 2015, attached below). I know that in some cases some researchers (personal communications) have been able to thaw and retrieve from liquid nitrogen, but though they are still 'alive', they loose their ability to be fertilized (infertile).

I appreciate your help providing me with your answers and/or experience in this matter.

25 years ago while replanting a 100-mile gas pipeline north of Reno in BLM lands in a cheatgrass area, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html discovered that the exotic animal grazing had lowered the soil nutrients and organic matter below the thresholds needed for the local native seedling survival, that you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html

By finding the soil nutrient thresholds in the top 5 cm, from around the seedlings of the desired native, and then testing the project area soils, and then adding fertilizers and organic matter along with the seeds, was able to get a cheatgrass-free planting in only six months, that remained 100% cheatgrass free for at least five years.

So my conclusion is that cheatgrass, instead of an "invasive" plants, the cheatgrass is what I call a "default" weed, only growing in soil too poor for the local natives and indicating poor soil conditions.

THE QUESTION IS, has anyone else used fertilizers to permanently eradicate other populations of cheatgrass, or added fertilizers to bring the soil nutrient thresholds up, so that the desirable plants are favored, and they can out-compete with the poorer-soil adapted weeds?

Collaborations may be forthcoming if I can find anyone working on plant assisted colonization.  It can be anywhere in the world and any habitat.  I want to try out a decision framework recently published on AC and the biogeographic approach.

I just published a satirical article in a serious journal, and it has a serious argument. The intent was to use satire as a transparent tool to show the limitations of current methods, and to potentially launch more radical ideas that would be capable of more beneficial outcomes.

But there are a lot of problems with satire: it's frequently misunderstood, authorial intent looms inappropriately large, and perhaps it wouldn't be taken seriously. After the scandals around the Sokol paper, and the more recent expose in the humanities, do you have any opinion about when satire would be helpful and when not? Thanks for any thoughts :)

Brick, C. (2019). A modest proposal for restoration ecology. Restoration Ecology, 27, 3. 10.1111/rec.12943

References

To assist in weed management objectives, I am seeking information on tropical grass re-establishment methodologies and key references that may help a conservation area in Java, Indonesia.

What is meant by ecosystem health?

Give an idea of ecosystem health profile.

State the indicators of ecosystem health?

How health deterioration is diagnosed?

How can health of an ecosystem be recovered?

What protective and ameliorative or therapeutic strategies can be adopted?

How indicators can tell about the good health, the bad health, deteriorating health or the recovering health?

Here in Lithuania we face a contrary issue - how to reduce Phragmites australis populations which overgrow some medicinal plants and other wild harvested species. They occupy every more or less suitable site including quite dry habitats. This case looks like a population shift to the North, which is predicted by the climate change researchers. What about the other wetland plants in Central Italy - are there any more species who suffer regression too? E-mail: juozas.labokas@botanika.lt

I'm looking for literature on tropical dry forest restoration worldwide. If you know of any projects, I would be very grateful if you could let me know about them. Thank you all

I have an experimental set up where I look at oak regeneration. I have taken hemispherical photographs in order to estimate the percent of above canopy light that is available to the seedlings under different canopy conditions. My supervisor have done this before, but analyzed the images using Gap Light Analyzer. Now that software is to old to run on my computer, so I am wondering if anyone have experience using the software CAN-EYE to answer similar questions? I have spent hours reading their manual, but since I'm new at this I still can't figure out if it can do what I want...

Thank you!

Bonjour,

wanting to study bryophyte seed banks in temperate temporary wet ecosystems (ponds puddles etc.) I am looking for any practical advices and/or relevant references. Thank you.

Both phytoextraction efficiency (PEE) and metal accumulation index (MAI) are key parameters to know the ability of a plant for heavy metals removal from a contaminated soil. Are there any other indices?

In restoring ecosystem, nurse plant can be used to facilitate other plants establishment so that successional process can run faster. What I am wondering is, when I need to decide what kind of plant that I should grow under nurse plant, I don't know which one is better, pick shrubs/grass or tree seedlings? I have heard that tree seedling is better because it can cut some successional steps. In the other hand, facilitating shrubs/grass may develop soil so tree will be able to grow in that soil condition.

I´m very interested find response variables to associate functional traits and the resistance in a process of restoration ecology. 

Any suggestions or help will be welcome.

I´m looking for different ways to find relationships between litter production and the ecosystem services in a process of restoration ecology and know how can I size and quantify it.

Thank you very much, any help will be welcome.

in most articles i get adding 50g of arbuscular mycorrhiza inoculation(sand,soil,host root) is sufficient to do AMF inoculation research. is that always true? deos it hold true if i want to inoculate a tree seedling(potted in a 15 cm plastic pot) during planting on the field?

Brush fire usually happened in somewhere during the hottest Summer of Australia.After put out the fire, is there any methods which linked with landscape architecture can used to help the vegetation restoration of the area? Thank you.

I intend to gather information about the plants which existed before the KGFs were mined systematically. 

founders effect is usually referred as loss of genetic diversity due to small population size of pioneers. however, i also rarely read that founders effect denotes to the effect of early colonizing or planted plants on the over all succession and hence, restoration success/speed of a restoration site. so can some one tell me a little bit on this matter?

What are the top research needs to advance the field or to make projects more effective?

We're studying the feasibility of restoring aquatic habitat to a 1.2 km (4,000 ft) length of river pool on the Upper Ohio River. Restoration may include adding large river substrate, terracing the river bank, adding perched wetlands, etc.  We were wondering if there exists any habitat evaluation model/procedure that would allow us to assess potential benefits holistically, i.e., in a linked, perhaps synergistic fashion.  Our evaluation alternatives, at this point, are to use something like time-worn HSI models (e.g., for Smallmouth Bass).

I conducted a study on our university's freshwater lake located in our nature preserve. Now, we are in the process of restoring it.

Can anyone recommend any important plants/trees needed to suck up nutrients and filter the water?

The water is very turbid (visibility is low at about 1-2 ft). P is limiting but about 0.04-0.06 mg/L and N is 1.02-1.40 mg/L, dominant aquatic plant spp is FW macroalgae Chara spp., and it is surrounded by Ardesia and Brazilian Pepper. There is a healthy population of eastern mosquitofish and large mouth bass, but there is a high amount of striped tilapia and african jewelfish.

Average depth is about 6 ft, max depth 9 ft. 

Let me know if you need anymore information.

How can we quantify ecosystems health? What are the criteria to be consider for us to say that a certain ecosystem is healthy?

I would like to access some of the plant traits information in this site (seed mass, heigth and so on), but I don't know if I have to ask for it in every case. Some previous experience with this site that can help me? Thank you.

Can some one send me a practical positive result(s) in ecological restoration that is (are) obtained from the application of AMF. i read some article regarding some good experience in Spain (Barea et al). are there more of such examples? is the role of AMF in ecological restoration a practical one or its just a myth? many thanks in advance.

Does anyone know where I can find information/data documenting the loss of native Floridian ecosystems, including mangrove islands, wetlands (marshes and swamps), pine flatwoods (both long leaf pine with wire grass and slash pine with palmetto), temperate hardwood forest and mesic hammocks.  thanks!  

Based on Lewis (1990), 3 terms for Restoration named, "restoration”, “creation”, and “enhancement” have been defined. Also Restoration can be divided in two parts as “Rehabilitation” and “Reestablishment”. There is no name for "Revitalization" here.  My dissertation is about Revitalizing urban wetland's cultural landscape. Though I couldn't find any classification –method or any common way-  for wetland's Revitalization. Now, my question is:

Could Restoration and Revitalization be the same? Can I use revitalization term instead of restoration? If not, what are the differences?

Could you please introduce me any professor or expert in this field?

Thank you in advanced for your answers and attentions.

In a new version (Canoco 5) there are few new options: variation partitioning build - in the analysis, use of GLM, and the possibility to use traits data. Does anybody have experience with Canoco 5 already?

1. Particularly in analyzing change over time in the plant community (with a additional factor acting at the known moment in time, but not incorporated in the environmental data sensu stricto). I know the principal response curves procedure, I'm wondering if there is a different/better approach.

2. Analyzing the changes of mean plant traits over time in community, but within a relatively small data set (something like 16 plots, recorded for a couple of years). Is this even possible? what kind of results do you get? What are the possible mistakes in interpretation?

I am trying to quantify the time needed for indirect canopy regeneration of burnt areas (i.e. from patches or individuals that didn't burn). Did somebody com across any estimates of primary and secondary dispersion of seeds? Also what factors could prevent this process?

**Edit***

As suggested by S. Hari I specify that I am interested in particular in mediterranean low forest, composed both by pioneer (seeder) and postpioneer plants and where crown fire are the most common. My question arises from the need to give indication to forest workers on when they should look for signs of recovery

Thanks

Focus on: criteria for selection, establishment, conservation, management and  monitoring

Soil bioengineering is the use of living plant materials to perform some engineering function, from simple erosion control with hydroseeding to more complex slope stabilization with willows and other plants (Schiechtl 1980).

Pioneering woody species are of particular importance in the development of bioengineering systems. In Mediterranean countries the water stress resulting from a dry summer is a limiting factor for plant success, and the plant selection for bioengineering should consider the more suitable native species.

In California, serpentine soils contain unique native species, and also contain some of best examples of wildflower fields, but when projects like pipelines go through, there do not seem to be any successes in rebuilding those areas from scratch.  

Any successes within California or in serpentine in other parts of the world, and what was the plan? With the lack of restoration knowledge of serpentine in California, I am estimating at least $5 million per acre to invent the methods we need to succeed.

On every spot where any individual exotic plant gets established, it is causing what I call "Spatial Extinction" of the local native plants on the spot that the exotic plant is occupying. We usually consider "extinction" is the final death of every last individual of the species, but I am suggesting a new concept, that when an individual exotic plant gets established, that it is causing "Spatial" extinction, that lasts as long on that spot and is as effective as regular extinction is. Pictures from California, Poppies and a few feet away solid European foxtail grass causing Spatial Extinction of the native ecosystem.

NGS platforms, sequencing whole genome of an individual in few hours, are being used in bio medical sciences tremendously and in agricultural and environmental sciences upto a some extent. Soil microbes play key role in degradation of organic matter, biogeochemical cyclying, soil structure formation and ecosystem structural and functional stability. How knowing understanding structure, function and diversity through NGS platforms can contribute in ecosystem restoration process?    

I like to think of this a tool being used in conjunction with other restoration practices (planting, seeding ect), but not sure what other folks think of it.

For instance, do we aim at the point where it was pristine ( which I don't think is possible) or to a point where there is minimal adverse impact?

How landscape connectivity influence anthropogenic pressure in biodiversity rich area?

I manage two very different forests in Mauritius, which we are restoring and I would be keen to learn other techniques to tackling invasive weeds as well as different approaches. We learn a lot from applying successional theory and also trying different techniques, but I would like to know if anyone has published a handbook that is applicable to oceanic or tropical forest management.

In Central-European riparian woodlands the North-American Box elder/Ash-leaved Maple (Acer negundo) has established itself as a neophyte. The recently reintroduced European Beaver (Castor fiber) is, despite contrary expectations, neglecting the Acer negundo and no trees have been felled.

Many restoration/revegetation/reafforestation projects have goals to improve biodiversity or ecosystem services from a degraded site.

Projects often use monocultures of non-native plants (usually trees) or monocultures of native plants (also tends to be trees). However, at considerable cost, some projects employ a diverse planting approach (a few to many species), trying to match the community that was present initially, with the idea that these diverse plantings give better biodiversity or ecosystem function outcomes.

Apart from the initial differences at planting, I'm interested to get people's thoughts on how good the evidence base is for diverse plantings giving better biodiversity and/or ecosystem function outcomes.

Does anybody know of a good (specific) example where a rehabilitation project for marginal/degraded land resulted in a significant increase in biodiversity, i.e. that the land is now acting as an important refuge for native plants and animals?

I would like to test how dissimilar are some traits of an intruduced species with respect to an established community.

I'm looking for a Ph.D. and I would like to know what are the European most active Research Centers in the fields of Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation/Restoration.

For instance, for plants we could observe community succession to predict the direction of degraded grassland, for belowground soil the microbes used to be a prerequisite e.g. microbial biomass of carbon and nitrogen. When we obtain data from both community succession and microbes, we usually do some regression and explain the reason for degradation. Could we use other methods?

Ronaldo (CR7) just came to my country over the weekend to campaign and support efforts to educate and raise public awareness of the importance of protecting mangrove forests. Is it an effective way?

As we know that over half the worlds mangrove forests have been destroyed over the last 30- 40 years to make way for commercial enterprises such as aquaculture (mainly shrimp farming), agriculture and coastal development. Intensive shrimp farming has devastating environmental effects. Not only does the practice clear large areas of coastal habitat including mangrove forests but it also pollutes nearby coastal waters and marine habitats such as coral reefs with waste matter from the shrimp ponds.

Increased human settlement along our coastlines also leads to agricultural expansion. This is believed to be the most destructive human impact on mangrove forests due to the scale of the problem. Unregulated urban development increases pollution and alters the distribution and use of water and with increased tourism into tropical regions over recent decades; this is only compounding the problem.

Ecological Engineering is a new baby of Ecosystem Ecology, its principles and their applications are not very different from conceptual ideas and practical applications of Restoration Ecology. However, it is very true that, once severely degraded ecosystem, can not be replaced, or can not be converted in ditto as of the original state.

We can replace or convert a degraded ecosystem into a full functional or up to in–full productive form, but can not be possible to achieve its original shape as it was. Therefore, spirit of my question has posed me to know any possibility for recovering severely degraded or unproductive ecosystem via ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING discipline whose time has come!!

Based on literature, about 50 % of the total geographical areas of the earth is existing in several format of degradation (anthropogenic, as well as natural calamities). For example India is one of those countries, having a significant size of unproductive/ degraded lands. Moreover, natural calamities like flooding, tsunami and huge human population are also challenging.

If concepts, ideas and practical applications of Ecological Engineering being true, we can reshape and redesign our natural unproductive/degraded ecosystems into most desirable ones.

We have calculated drift in a 3rd-4th order river in W OR USA, a system that has low nutrient concentrations and perhaps has the capacity to support better anadromous fish runs. We have found limited information in the literature that is comparable to our system and would be interested in hearing from others. We see baseflow as a bottleneck that could be exacerbated by climate change. Part of the problem is methods and how results are reported vary , and there is high temporal and spatial variability naturally.

I'm working on the design of an experiment related to seed bank of road sides, and I'm looking for some alien invasive plant species for it. I already now that Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a major concern in several countries in Europe, but I will need some other species. It would better if they are annuals. Any ideas?

Exotic species are better for structural development for soil development at any cost. However, they accumulate substantial amount of biomass but allocation of biomass is somewhat unusual especially in degraded soil. Carbon is one of key element utilized by soil biota for energy and structural development, but carbon accretion in soil by exotic plants is substantially poor (based on my unpublished work).

Most difficult tasks related to the plant conservation.

What is the most influential paper in genes-to-ecosystems research that you have read in the past year and why?

In arid and semiarid areas?

Do you know of examples of shortened plant life cycles (like selective hybridization) which have been used to reclaim mine areas and restore virgin forests?

Which groups are doing the work to test, develop and propagate cultivars for this important work?

I know that the NRCS Plant Materials Centers are involved in some of this work. I would like to know the names of other private or government institutions in the US doing this work.