A systematic review of ecological attributes that confer resilience to climate change in environmental restoration

<div><p>Ecological restoration is widely practiced as a means of rehabilitating ecosystems and habitats that have been degraded or impaired through human use or other causes. Restoration practices now are confronted by climate change, which has the potential to influence long-term restoration outcomes. Concepts and attributes from the resilience literature can help improve restoration and monitoring efforts under changing climate conditions. We systematically examined the published literature on ecological resilience to identify biological, chemical, and physical attributes that confer resilience to climate change. We identified 45 attributes explicitly related to climate change and classified them as individual- (9), population- (6), community- (7), ecosystem- (7), or process-level attributes (16). Individual studies defined resilience as resistance to change or recovery from disturbance, and only a few studies explicitly included both concepts in their definition of resilience. We found that individual and population attributes generally are suited to species- or habitat-specific restoration actions and applicable at the population scale. Community attributes are better suited to habitat-specific restoration at the site scale, or system-wide restoration at the ecosystem scale. Ecosystem and process attributes vary considerably in their type and applicability. We summarize these relationships in a decision support table and provide three example applications to illustrate how these classifications can be used to prioritize climate change resilience attributes for specific restoration actions. We suggest that (1) including resilience as an explicit planning objective could increase the success of restoration projects, (2) considering the ecological context and focal scale of a restoration action is essential in choosing appropriate resilience attributes, and (3) certain ecological attributes, such as diversity and connectivity, are more commonly considered to confer resilience because they apply to a wide variety of species and ecosystems. We propose that identifying sources of ecological resilience is a critical step in restoring ecosystems in a changing climate.</p></div

Using remote sensing data to assess salmon habitat status and trends in Puget Sound river deltas

Puget Sound Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Steelhead (O. mykiss), and Hood Canal summer chum (O. keta) are currently listed as “Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The National Marine Fisheries Service is required to evaluate their listing status and trends in habitat conditions every five years. However, consistent habitat monitoring programs have not been developed to evaluate the status and trends of habitats used by listed Puget Sound salmon populations. To address this need, the Northwest Fisheries Science Center has been developing a monitoring program to provide consistent status and trends data for key habitat environments utilized by salmon. River deltas are one such critical environment, as juvenile salmon utilize delta habitats for rearing and to complete the physiological adaptations necessary to transition to marine waters. These favorable habitats occur primarily along the margins of distributary channels and tidal channels in delta estuaries. Therefore, consistent delineations of tidal channel features can provide an indicator of habitat quantity (e.g., tide channel area and channel edge habitat length) and quality (e.g., channel network complexity and node density) that can be used to evaluate the status and trends of delta habitat essential to juvenile salmon. We have initiated a monitoring program to map tidal channel features throughout Puget Sound’s major river deltas using high resolution aerial imagery. We have completed preliminary delineations of tidal channel features using 2010 to 2011 aerial imagery, and are currently updating these delineations using 2013 imagery. Because tidal and wetlands are increasingly the focus of salmon habitat restoration, we anticipate that consistent mapping of tidal channel features over time will illustrate trends of delta habitat quantity and quality that can be used to inform status reviews and management strategies