Important terms

Question 1

Ecological restoration (def)

Answer 1

The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.

Question 2

Aims of Ecological restoration

Answer 2

• Improve biodiversity conservation
• Secure the delivery of ecosystem services including mitigating effects of natural disasters and climate change
• Ensure projects are integrated with socio-cultural needs and realities
• Contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development

Question 3

8 principles underpinning ecological restoration

Answer 3

1) Engages stakeholders
2) Draws on many types of knowledge
3) ER practice is informed by native reference ecosystems, while considering environmental change
4) Supports ecosystem recovery processes
5) Ecosystem recovery is assessed against clear goals and objectives, using measurable indicators
6) Seeks the highest level of recovery attainable
7) Gains cumulative value when applied at large scales
8) Is part of a continuum of restorative activities

Question 4

Remediation

Answer 4

A management activity, such as removal or detoxification of contaminants or excess nutrients from soil or water to remove sources of degradation.

Question 5

Rehabilitation

Answer 5

Actions aiming at reinstalling ecosystem functionality, e.g. to provide ecosystem services.

Question 6

Ecological engineering

Answer 6

Involves manipulation of natural materials, living organisms or the environment to achieve specific human goals.

Question 7

Reclamation

Answer 7

(Re)turning the land into what is considered to be a useful purpose. Also used when the land is stabilized to improve public safety and aesthetic experiences.

Question 8

Reference ecosystem

Answer 8

A representation of a native ecosystem that is the target of ecological restoration. A reference ecosystem usually represents a non-degraded version of the ecosystem complete with its flora, fauna, and other biota, abiotic elements, functions, processes, and successional states that might have existed on the restoration sites had degradation not occurred and adjusted to accommodate changed or predicted environmental conditions.

Question 9

Reference site

Answer 9

An extant intact site that has attributes and a successional phase similar to the restoration project site and that is used to inform the reference model.

Question 10

Conservation/Benign Introductions

Answer 10

An attempt to establish a species, for the purpose of conservation, outside its recorded distribution but within an appropriate habitat and ecogeographical area.

Question 11

Composition

Answer 11

what is present and in which amounts

Question 12

Configuration

Answer 12

spatial arrangement

Question 13

Ecotope

Answer 13

Horizontal component of a landscape (Tope = homogeneous piece of land (scale dependent) within an attribute)

Question 14

Converging and diverging boundaries

Answer 14

Convergence: boundary represented by more than one attribute (-> one road is united with other roads to form a single road).
Divergence: boundary in one attribute only (-> one road is divided into several roads).

Question 15

What is Landscape metrics?

Answer 15

• ”Objective/neutral” landscape description (using numbers, so no personal opinions)
• Quantification of spatial heterogeneity
• Relationship between patterns and processes
• Quantification tool (rather than goal)

Question 16

Restoration

Answer 16

bringing back the function of an area and also bringing back the species that used to live there before the damage

Question 17

Degraded

Answer 17

some parts of the system has been ruined, but the original system is still visible (fx cutting down trees).

Question 18

Damaged

Answer 18

parts of the system has been change, and that lead to that other parts of the system change too (fx digging ditches dries the land around).

Question 19

Destroyed

Answer 19

the system is not recognizeble anymore and it will take a lot of time and effort to get the system back to the orginal (fx open cast mining, peat digging).

Question 20

Ecosystems vs. Landscapes

Answer 20

• Ecosystem (definition): “a system of relationships and interactions among living organisms and their abiotic such as soil, water and air, at a specified location”
• Landscape (definition): “an assemblage of ecosystems that are arranged in recognizable patterns and that exchange organisms and materials such as nutrients and water”

Question 21

Landscape Ecology

Answer 21

”Causes behind and consequences of variations in landscapes”

Question 22

Mires, wetlands, bogs, fens (def)

Answer 22

• Mires are peatlands where peat is currently being formed >20 cm peat.
• Wetlands may be mires but also saturated mineral soil land.
• Bogs are mires raised above the surrounding landscape and solely fed by precipitation. Always acidic (pH<4)
• Fens are mires placed in depressions, also fed by ground- and surface waters. Often neutral or slightly alkaline (spring water lime).

Question 23

Causes of Mire Disturbance

Answer 23

• Peat extraction
• Indirect change in hydrological regimes
• Landscape drainage/ditching to reclaim forest or arable land
• Atmospheric N deposition

Question 24

Chores

Answer 24

Systematic combination of ecotopes (fx et et system eller samling af ecotopes, som gentager sig selv).
Gruppering af ecotopes i logiske grupper med samme karakterer.

Question 25

Ecosystem function

Answer 25

Biomass and process rates (e.g. net primary production.

aka point processes or vertical fluxes

Question 26

Landscape function

Answer 26

Fluxes of matter, energy and genes.

aka horizontal transport or lateral fluxes

Question 27

Landscape Ecology is about…

Answer 27

… identifying, mapping, and quantifying fluxes.

Question 28

Fluxes can be described by its factors (“acting to fulfill the function”). Factors:

Answer 28

○ Operational factor – what?
○ Conditional factors – why?
○ Positional factors – where/why there?
○ Besides this it is useful to identify the flux Agent during the factor description – by what/who?

Question 29

Function meaning in landscape ecology

Answer 29

fluxes of matter, energy and organisms, the sum of processes

Question 30

Main Lake disturbances

Answer 30

• Eutrofication
• Pollution
• Acidification of the water
• Sediment load
• Physical modification

Question 31

Restoration in heathlands are difficult because of:

Answer 31

○ Nutrients (agriculture, air pollution)

○ Tree seed sources

Question 32

Restoration tools in heathlands

Answer 32

○ Cropping
○ Top soil removal
○ Artificial acidification
○ Cutting of trees

Question 33

The Carbon Copy-myth

Answer 33

The myth is rooted in the idea that ecosystems develop in a predictable fashion toward a specified, static, end point or climax (a single endpoint exists).

Question 34

The Field of Dreams-myth

Answer 34

Stems from the notion that all one needs is the physical structure for a particular ecosystem, and biotic composition and function will self-assemble - if you build it, they will come.

Question 35

The Fast-Forwarding-myth

Answer 35

Is based on the idea that one can accelerate ecosystem development by controlling pathways, such as dispersal, colonization, and community assembly, to reduce the time required to create a functional or desired ecosystem.

Question 36

The Cookbook-myth

Answer 36

When a particular restoration experience is successful in one area or ecosystem, we naturally want to apply the same techniques in other restoration efforts.

Question 37

The Command and Control (Sisyphus Complex)-myth

Answer 37

Goals are achieved by active intervention and unending control, or manipulation of physical and biological components of the ecosystem.

Question 38

The River Continuum Concept

Answer 38

A river changes constantly as it moves downstream, and can only truly be understood as a continuum.

Question 39

3 major ways, freshwater systems are degraded , damaged or destroyed

Answer 39

In-stream human impact
Changes to the run
Changes in the catchment

Question 40

What is monitoring?

Answer 40

“Monitoring is technically defined as systematically checking or scrutinizing (forskende) something for the purpose of collecting specified categories of data.”

“In ecology, it generally refers to sampling conducted to detect changes in physical, chemical, or biological parameters.”

Question 41

Control/Impact evaluation

Answer 41

Man sammenligner den restaurerede del med en del af samme område, som ikke er blevet restaureret (kontrol-området). Her formoder man at impact-området ville have lignet kontrol-området, hvis man ikke havde gjort noget.

Question 42

Before/After evaluation

Answer 42

Man måler på området før restaurering og efter området er blevet restaureret. Her formoder man at det restaurerede område ville have blevet ved med at ligne det område, det var før, hvis man ikke have gjort noget.