Restoration enhances wetland biodiversity and ecosystem service supply, but results are context-dependent: a meta-analysis

Wetlands are valuable ecosystems because they harbor a huge biodiversity and provide key services to societies. When natural or human factors degrade wetlands, ecological restoration is often carried out to recover biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Although such restorations are routinely performed, we lack systematic, evidence-based assessments of their effectiveness on the recovery of biodiversity and ES. Here we performed a meta-analysis of 70 experimental studies in order to assess the effectiveness of ecological restoration and identify what factors affect it. We compared selected ecosystem performance variables between degraded and restored wetlands and between restored and natural wetlands using response ratios and random-effects categorical modeling. We assessed how context factors such as ecosystem type, main agent of degradation, restoration action, experimental design, and restoration age influenced post-restoration biodiversity and ES. Biodiversity showed excellent recovery, though the precise recovery depended strongly on the type of organisms involved. Restored wetlands showed 36% higher levels of provisioning, regulating and supporting ES than did degraded wetlands. In fact, wetlands showed levels of provisioning and cultural ES similar to those of natural wetlands; however, their levels of supporting and regulating ES were, respectively, 16% and 22% lower than in natural wetlands. Recovery of biodiversity and of ES were positively correlated, indicating a win-win restoration outcome. The extent to which restoration increased biodiversity and ES in degraded wetlands depended primarily on the main agent of degradation, restoration actions, experimental design, and ecosystem type. In contrast, the choice of specific restoration actions alone explained most differences between restored and natural wetlands. These results highlight the importance of comprehensive, multi-factorial assessment to determine the ecological status of degraded, restored and natural wetlands and thereby evaluate the effectiveness of ecological restorations. Future research on wetland restoration should also seek to identify which restoration actions work best for specific habitats

Enhancing ecosystem services maps combining field and environmental data

Ecosystem service maps are increasingly being used to prioritize management and conservation decisions. Most of these maps rely on estimates of ecosystem services estimated for individual land cover classes rather than incorporating field data. We developed combined field models (CFM) using regression analysis to estimate ecosystem services based on the observed relationship between environmental and land cover data and field measurements of ecosystem services. Local ecosystem service supply was estimated from vegetation data measured at fifty sites covering the widest range of environmental conditions across a watershed in Mexico. We compared the accuracy of the CFM approach for forage, timber, firewood and carbon storage over a more commonly “look up table” method relying on a uniform estimate of ecosystem service supply by land cover type. The CFM revealed higher accuracy when compared to the “look up table” approach. The resulting CFM models explained a large fraction of the variance (42–89%) using a combination of land cover, remote sensing data, hydrology and distance from developed areas. In addition, mapping residuals from Geographically Weighted Regressions provided an estimate of uncertainty across the CFM model results. This approach provides better estimates of ecosystem service delivery and uncertainty for land managers and decision-makers

The functional role of producer diversity in ecosystems

Over the past several decades, a rapidly expanding field of research known as biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has begun to quantify how the world\u27s biological diversity can, as an independent variable, control ecological processes that are both essential for, and fundamental to, the functioning of ecosystems. Research in this area has often been justified on grounds that (1) loss of biological diversity ranks among the most pronounced changes to the global environment and that (2) reductions in diversity, and corresponding changes in species composition, could alter important services that ecosystems provide to humanity (e.g., food production, pest/disease control, water purification). Here we review over two decades of experiments that have examined how species richness of primary producers influences the suite of ecological processes that are controlled by plants and algae in terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. Using formal meta-analyses, we assess the balance of evidence for eight fundamental questions and corresponding hypotheses about the functional role of producer diversity in ecosystems. These include questions about how primary producer diversity influences the efficiency of resource use and biomass production in ecosystems, how primary producer diversity influences the transfer and recycling of biomass to other trophic groups in a food web, and the number of species and spatial /temporal scales at which diversity effects are most apparent. After summarizing the balance of evidence and stating our own confidence in the conclusions, we outline several new questions that must now be addressed if this field is going to evolve into a predictive science that can help conserve and manage ecological processes in ecosystems

Un esquema socio-ecológico y espacial para el diseño de políticas para la sustentabilidad: México como caso de estudio

No existen marcos espaciales integrados para evaluar los sistemas socio-ecológicos acoplados y para diseñar políticas públicas ad hoc. Utilizamos a México como caso de estudio para: i) desarrollar Un marco espacial socio-ecológico, las socio-ecorregiones, ii) describir los patrones resultantes, y iii) explorar cómo este marco podría ser usado para el diseño de políticas hacia la sustentabilidad. Usamos las ecorregiones y el Índice de Desarrollo Humano para construir las socio-ecorregiones. Mostramos cómo el marco socio-eco-regiones refleja la heterogeneidad ecológica y social del país. Este marco resulta ser útil para diseñar políticas socio-ecológicas. Discutimos que este marco puede ser fácilmente desarrollado para otras regiones, a nivel mundial o local, y contribuir al desarrollo de políticas más integradas hacia la sustentabilidad.Integrated spatial framework to assess coupled social-ecological systems and design ad hoc public policies is still lacking. We used the country of Mexico as a case study to: i) develop a social-ecological spatial framework, the socio-ecoregions, ii) describe the resulting patterns, and iii) explore how the framework can be used for designing policies towards sustainabillity. Ecoregions and Human Development Index were used to build socioecoregions. We showed how the socio-ecoregions framework reflects the ecological and social heterogeneity of the country. This framework was shown to be useful to design social-ecological policies. We discuss that this framework may easily be developed for other regions at global to local scales and contribute to the development of more integrated policies towards sustainability.Fil: Castellarini, Fabiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); Argentina. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Siebe, Christina. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: Lazos, Elena. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: de la Tejera, Beatriz . Universidad Autonoma Chapingo; México. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Cotler, Helena. Universidad de Guadalajara; MéxicoFil: Pacheco, Carlos. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México. Universidad de Guadalajara; MéxicoFil: Boege, Eckart . Instituto Nacional de Antropologia E Historia; MéxicoFil: Moreno, Ana Rosa. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: Saldívar, Américo. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: Larrazabal, Alejandra. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: Galán, Carla. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: Casado, José María. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Facultad de Medicina; MéxicoFil: Balvanera, Patricia. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Centro de Inv.de Ecosistemas; Méxic

Justice, sustainability, and the diverse values of nature: why they matter for biodiversity conservation

Aiming at just and sustainable futures for biodiversity conservation requires clarity concerning how justice relates to the diverse values of nature. By drawing upon and expanding on the recent Values Assessment of Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, this article discusses the implications of the diverse values of nature for different dimensions of justice. It also addresses how achieving transformative change that protects biodiversity requires the inclusion of diverse values of nature into valuation and decision-making processes, and how this imperative is interconnected with different dimensions of justice

Changes in biodiversity and trade-offs among ecosystem services, stakeholders, and components of well-being: the contribution of the International Long-Term Ecological Research network (ILTER) to Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS)

The International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network comprises > 600 scientific groups conducting site-based research within 40 countries. Its mission includes improving the understanding of global ecosystems and informs solutions to current and future environmental problems at the global scales. The ILTER network covers a wide range of social-ecological conditions and is aligned with the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) goals and approach. Our aim is to examine and develop the conceptual basis for proposed collaboration between ILTER and PECS. We describe how a coordinated effort of several contrasting LTER site-based research groups contributes to the understanding of how policies and technologies drive either toward or away from the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. This effort is based on three tenets: transdisciplinary research; cross-scale interactions and subsequent dynamics; and an ecological stewardship orientation. The overarching goal is to design management practices taking into account trade-offs between using and conserving ecosystems toward more sustainable solutions. To that end, we propose a conceptual approach linking ecosystem integrity, ecosystem services, and stakeholder well-being, and as a way to analyze trade-offs among ecosystem services inherent in diverse management options. We also outline our methodological approach that includes: (i) monitoring and synthesis activities following spatial and temporal trends and changes on each site and by documenting cross-scale interactions; (ii) developing analytical tools for integration; (iii) promoting trans-site comparison; and (iv) developing conceptual tools to design adequate policies and management interventions to deal with trade-offs. Finally, we highlight the heterogeneity in the social-ecological setting encountered in a subset of 15 ILTER sites. These study cases are diverse enough to provide a broad cross-section of contrasting ecosystems with different policy and management drivers of ecosystem conversion; distinct trends of biodiversity change; different stakeholders’ preferences for ecosystem services; and diverse components of well-being issues

Legume abundance along successional and rainfall gradients in Neotropical forests

The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of forest inventory plots from a network of 42 Neotropical forest chronosequences. During the first three decades of natural forest regeneration, legume basal area is twice as high in dry compared with wet secondary forests. The tremendous ecological success of legumes in recently disturbed, water-limited forests is likely to be related to both their reduced leaflet size and ability to fix N2, which together enhance legume drought tolerance and water-use efficiency. Earth system models should incorporate these large-scale successional and climatic patterns of legume dominance to provide more accurate estimates of the maximum potential for natural nitrogen fixation across tropical forests.Additional co-authors: Rebecca J. Cole, Gabriel Dalla Colletta, Ben de Jong, Julie S. Denslow, Saara J. DeWalt, Juan Manuel Dupuy, Sandra M. Durán, Mário Marcos do Espírito Santo, G. Wilson Fernandes, Yule Roberta Ferreira Nunes, Bryan Finegan, Vanessa Granda Moser, Jefferson S. Hall, José Luis Hernández-Stefanoni, André B. Junqueira, Deborah Kennard, Edwin Lebrija-Trejos, Susan G. Letcher, Madelon Lohbeck, Erika Marín-Spiotta, Miguel Martínez-Ramos, Jorge A. Meave, Duncan N. L. Menge, Francisco Mora, Rodrigo Muñoz, Robert Muscarella, Susana Ochoa-Gaona, Edith Orihuela-Belmonte, Rebecca Ostertag, Marielos Peña-Claros, Eduardo A. Pérez-García, Daniel Piotto, Peter B. Reich, Casandra Reyes-García, Jorge Rodríguez-Velázquez, I. Eunice Romero-Pérez, Lucía Sanaphre-Villanueva, Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Naomi B. Schwartz, Arlete Silva de Almeida, Jarcilene S. Almeida-Cortez, Whendee Silver, Vanessa de Souza Moreno, Benjamin W. Sullivan, Nathan G. Swenson, Maria Uriarte, Michiel van Breugel, Hans van der Wal, Maria das Dores Magalhães Veloso, Hans F. M. Vester, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Jess K. Zimmerman & Jennifer S. Power