An inventory of continental U.S. terrestrial candidate ecological restoration areas based on landscape context

Wickham, James D.; Riitters, Kurt H.; Vogt, Peter; Costanza, Jennifer K.; Neale, Anne C.

doi:10.1111/rec.12522

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…Because restorations are often expensive and time-consuming, managers and practitioners should start with the most easily and effectively repaired lands, because the available resources will then be able to foster recovery across the largest area in need. More highly degraded and/or invaded sites (e.g., where the proportion of nonnative plants is greater than that of native species in terms of richness and/or biomass) can then be serially addressed through a process of site prioritization (Riitters et al 2018; Wickham et al 2017).…”

Section: Site Selection Assessment and Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Ecological Restoration to Curb Biotic Invasion—A Practical Guide

Guo

Brockway

Larson

et al. 2018

Invasive plant sci. manag.

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Common practices for invasive species control and management include physical, chemical, and biological approaches. The first two approaches have clear limitations and may lead to unintended (negative) consequences, unless carefully planned and implemented. For example, physical removal rarely completely eradicates the targeted invasive species and can cause disturbances that facilitate new invasions by nonnative species from nearby habitats. Chemical treatments can harm native, and especially rare, species through unanticipated side effects. Biological methods may be classified as biocontrol and the ecological approach. Similar to physical and chemical methods, biocontrol also has limitations and sometimes leads to unintended consequences. Therefore, a relatively safer and more practical choice may be the ecological approach, which has two major components: (1) restoration of native species and (2) biomass manipulation of the restored community, such as selective grazing or prescribed burning (to achieve and maintain viable population sizes). Restoration requires well-planned and implemented planting designs that consider alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity and the abundance of native and invasive component species at local, landscape, and regional levels. Given the extensive destruction or degradation of natural habitats around the world, restoration could be most effective for enhancing ecosystem resilience and resistance to biotic invasions. At the same time, ecosystems in human-dominated landscapes, especially those newly restored, require close monitoring and careful intervention (e.g., through biomass manipulation), especially when successional trajectories are not moving as intended. Biomass management frequently uses prescribed burning, grazing, harvesting, and thinning to maintain overall ecosystem health and sustainability. Thus, the resulting optimal, balanced, and relatively stable ecological conditions could more effectively limit the spread and establishment of invasive species. Here we review the literature (especially within the last decade) on ecological approaches that involve biodiversity, biomass, and productivity, three key community/ecosystem variables that reciprocally influence one another. We focus on the common and most feasible ecological practices that can aid in resisting new invasions and/or suppressing the dominance of existing invasive species. We contend that, because of the strong influences from neighboring areas (i.e., as exotic species pools), local restoration and management efforts in the future need to consider the regional context and projected climate changes.

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Section: Site Selection Assessment and Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Ecological Restoration to Curb Biotic Invasion—A Practical Guide

Guo

Brockway

Larson

et al. 2018

Invasive plant sci. manag.

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show abstract

“…There was often considerable spatial variability in confluences conditions within the HUC 12 units that comprise a HUC 8 (e.g., Figures 2a vs. 3b) and there was often considerable spatial variability in confluence conditions within the HUC 12 units themselves (e.g., Figure 3a vs. 3b). The scale of individual confluences is often the scale at which restoration occurs because of cost factors (Wickham, Riitters, et al 2017) and an interesting example of how the data could be used to support local ecological restoration efforts is represented by the confluence encircled in black in Figure 3a. The property description for the land surrounding the confluence includes the term “conservation easement” (https://appomattoxgis.timmons.com/#/mwl?zoom=15%26location=-78.933669_37.434599) but much of the property is not forested, which is the potential natural vegetation in this region of the U.S. (Daubenmire 1978).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Landscape Assessment and Associated Dataset of Stream Confluences for the Conterminous U.S.

Ebert

Wickham

Neale

et al. 2020

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Stream confluences are important components of fluvial networks. Hydraulic forces meeting at stream confluences often produce changes in streambed morphology and sediment distribution. These changes often increase habitat heterogeneity relative to upstream and downstream locations, which have led some to identify them as biological hotspots. Despite their potential ecological importance, there are relatively few empirical studies documenting ecological patterns upstream and downstream of confluences. We have produced a publicly available dataset of stream confluences and associated watershed attributes for the conterminous United States. The dataset includes 1,085,629 stream confluences and 383 attributes for each confluence organized into 15 dataset tables for both tributary and mainstem upstream catchments and watersheds. Themes in the dataset include hydrology (e.g., stream order), land cover, land cover change, geology (e.g., calcium content of underlying lithosphere), physical condition (e.g., precipitation), measures of ecological integrity, and stressors (e.g., impaired streams). Additionally, we used measures of ecological integrity to assess the condition of the stream confluences. Aside from a generally positive east‐to‐west gradient in ecological condition, we found that approximately one‐third of the confluences had markedly contrasting ecological conditions between mainstem and tributary, catchment and watershed, or both. The dataset should support many, multifaceted studies of stream confluence ecology.

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“…Tthe intersection of nodes and linkages forms an landscape ecological network. Such networks [54] are important for the exchange of energy, materials, and information between landscape elements [55]. Understanding the system structure and function is critical to clarifying its elasticity.…”

Section: Relationship Between Network Analysis Indicators and Network...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis on the Evolution and Resilience of Ecological Network Structure in Wuhan Metropolitan Area

Zhang

Tan

et al. 2022

Sustainability

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With the accelerated urbanization and frequent occurrence of climate extremes, the regional ecosystem service level has ushered in a great challenge, and the resilience of the ecological network has gradually weakened, leading to lower ecological benefits and production levels. As a core ecologically sensitive area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Wuhan metropolitan area has been expanding outward with rapid urbanization, crowding out surrounding arable and ecological land, and facing serious challenges to the sustainable development of the national space, while current cross-regional ecological protection measures need to be strengthened urgently, and exploring the structural resilience of its ecological network is of great significance to promote regional stability. In this study, Wuhan metropolitan area is taken as an example, and we explore the evolution and laws of ecological network structure from the perspective of network analysis by constructing ecological networks in Wuhan metropolitan area in 2000, 2010, and 2020. Firstly, we select regions from the ecological control line developed in China as ecological source sites, and also select multivariate data to supplement them. Then, the ecological network was established using the MCR model. Finally, network analysis was applied to discuss the evolution of network structure under multiple times and propose corresponding conservation strategies. The results show that (1) the major ecological resistance of Wuhan urban area has increased by 5.24% in 20 years. (2) The centrality and connectivity of the network nodes have increased over the 20-year period, and the overall structure of the network has stabilized and the resilience of the network has increased. (3) There is a strong link between changes in the network as a whole and local resilience. The results of the study will help analyze the relationship between the network as a whole and the region, and provide reference for optimizing the ecological network and constructing the systematic management of ecological security pattern.

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An inventory of continental U.S. terrestrial candidate ecological restoration areas based on landscape context

Cited by 12 publications

References 37 publications

Improving Ecological Restoration to Curb Biotic Invasion—A Practical Guide

Improving Ecological Restoration to Curb Biotic Invasion—A Practical Guide

A Landscape Assessment and Associated Dataset of Stream Confluences for the Conterminous U.S.

Analysis on the Evolution and Resilience of Ecological Network Structure in Wuhan Metropolitan Area

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