Abstracts

To develop the following abstracts, the editorial staff searches more than 100 scientific journals, professional and organizational newsletters, conference proceedings, and other resources for information relevant to ecological restoration practice and research. Please send suggested abstract sources to the editorial staff (ERjournal@aesop.rutgers.edu).

Climate Change

Strategic Plant Choices Can Alleviate Climate Change Impacts: A Review. 2018. Espeland, E.K. and K.M. Kettenring (Department of Watershed Sciences and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, karin.kettenring@usu.edu). Journal of Environmental Management 222:316–324. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.05.042

As climate change continues to threaten ecosystems worldwide, restoration and conservation practices have developed Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) techniques to aid in adjusting to climate change impacts. Plants, as ecosystem engineers and known drivers of ecosystem function, are a critical part of the EbA approach. The authors reviewed the ways that plants positively impact ecosystems in a variety of ways including increasing soil stability, reducing floods and storm surge, decreasing desertification, mitigating sea level rise and moderating temperatures. The authors indicate that practitioners should consider predicted climate change disturbance regimes for their local areas and choose plants accordingly. For example, areas that will experience increased storm surge should utilize species that are not only flood-tolerant but that can also aid in slowing water movement. Likewise, fire-resistant species can reduce damage or even contain some fires. Strategic plant choice in restoration projects ranging from urban to ecosystem-scale has the potential to alleviate climate change stresses and improve restoration outcomes.

Interannual Variability in Climate Effects on Community Assembly and Ecosystem Functioning in Restored Prairie. 2018. Manning, G.C. (Department of Plant Biology and Center for Ecology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, gmanning4@siu.edu) and S.G. Baer. Ecosphere 9:1–10. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.2327

Community assembly is influenced by deterministic and stochastic events, depending on the local physical and biotic conditions experienced by a given community. Unpredictable events such as climate variations have the potential to shift the balance of deterministic and stochastic processes, altering community assembly. Manning and Baer established three identical restoration sequences but initiated them in different years to examine the influence of interannual climate variability on community assembly at the Konza Prairie Biological Station in Kansas. Precipitation varied within and between sequence years and influenced community compositions, and sequences initiated during drought years became dominated by a weedy, drought-tolerant species. These results indicate that younger restorations are likely more sensitive to drought and other climate variations but more established restoration sites may have the ability to persist through such stresses. Understanding community assembly under a changing climate regime is essential to achieving desirable restoration outcomes.

Coastal & Marine Communities

Development of a Biological Condition Assessment Index for Shallow, Subtidal Rocky Reefs in Southern California, USA. 2017. Coates, J.H. (California Ocean Science Trust, Oakland, CA, USA, julia.coates@wildlife.ca.gov), K. Schiff, R.D. Mazor, D.J. Pondella, R. Schaffner and E. Whiteman. Marine Ecology 39: e12471. doi: 10.1111/maec.12471

Identifying a measurement that could establish an ecosystem's health is receiving increasing attention. However, the characteristics attributed to healthy marine ecosystems remain largely unknown, particularly due to the complex interplay of ecological factors, such as species interactions, trophic subsidies and anthropic influence in these habitats. Coates et al. developed an index of ecosystem health for shallow rocky reefs in Southern California. This index was built using biological data and stressor gradients (fishing and water quality). They compared its performance between reference—high quality reefs where stressors were absent—and non-reference sites. Their results showed that fishing was a more important stressor than water quality. However, the models applied were not able to distinguish between reference and non-reference sites. This low sensitivity limits the applicability of the index in its current form; however, it exemplifies the concepts that could form the base for a new bioassessment tool.

A Global Synthesis Reveals Gaps in Coastal Habitat Restoration Research. 2018. Zhang, Y.S. (Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Beaufort, NC, stacy.zhang@duke.edu), W.R. Cioffi, R. Cope, P. Daleo...