Restoring Landscapes: When restoration actions don’t lead to restoration outcomes

As part of the ‘Restoring Landscapes’ blog series, author Jake Williams presents a case study illustrating the value of satellite data in filling the knowledge gap on the effect of passive restoration efforts in different climatic and ecological contexts. With the launch of the ‘Restoring Landscapes’ blog series, it is a timely moment to reflect on the connection between the actions we call “restoration” and … Continue reading Restoring Landscapes: When restoration actions don’t lead to restoration outcomes

Rewilding boosts Carbon Storage: How trees channel more Carbon into their roots

Author Nancy Burrell highlights the importance of accurate carbon accounting and describes her team’s latest research into the accuracy of current methods for measuring carbon in scrublands. Traditional methods like the i-Tree Eco model, effective in urban and forestry settings for estimating carbon storage in trees, are based on the growth patterns of plantation trees (trees grown in herbivore-free landscapes). But how does browsing at … Continue reading Rewilding boosts Carbon Storage: How trees channel more Carbon into their roots

Rewilding the sea

Interest in rewilding the land has boomed in recent years, especially after the success of the rewilded Knepp Estate in England. But what about rewilding the sea? Esther Brooker tells us about her research on marine rewilding. In the UK, the Knepp Estate has sought to lead the way on rewilding, turning an intensively farmed area over to nature. What does rewilding look like in … Continue reading Rewilding the sea

Rewild or Restore – how about doing both?

James Bullock and Nathalie Pettorelli summarise their Perspective piece that highlight the potential for integrating restoration and rewilding agendas into whole landscape approaches. As biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming pace, it is becoming more urgent to not only halt these losses but to reverse them. This reversal of losses, now commonly termed ‘nature recovery’, generally requires improving the state of terrestrial and aquatic … Continue reading Rewild or Restore – how about doing both?

Tortoises are unlikely to be detrimental for endemic skinks. A Telfair’s skink is basking on the head of an introduced Aldabra giant tortoise. Photo Nik Cole.

Seven years of rewilding with giant tortoises

Rosemary Moorhouse-Gann speaks on their latest research which investigates how rewilding Giant Tortoise can affect an Island ecosystem. The dodo, perhaps the most famous animal originating from Mauritius, is tragically extinct. Less well known are the two extinct species of giant tortoise that were found only in Mauritius. You can see shadows of the lost tortoises in Mauritian plant communities today, in the form of … Continue reading Seven years of rewilding with giant tortoises

Editor’s Choice 58:11: Invasion theory as a management tool for increasing native biodiversity in urban ecosystems

Senior Editor, Martin A. Nuñez, introduces November’s Editor’s Choice article by Cadotte and colleagues, which proposes a novel application of invasion biology in an urban environment. Biological invasions are a big problem for the economy, environment, and human health. As a result, there exists a deep theoretical framework that has developed over the last four decades, fueled by data from numerous invasive species across the … Continue reading Editor’s Choice 58:11: Invasion theory as a management tool for increasing native biodiversity in urban ecosystems

Time to integrate global climate change and biodiversity science-policy agendas

This year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) will be held in Glasgow in November. In the lead up to the conference, we’re asking our editors and authors to share their research at the interface of climate and ecology. In this post, Nathalie Pettorelli (ZSL) explains how the conference presents a clear window for developing coherent policy frameworks that align targets across the nexus of biodiversity … Continue reading Time to integrate global climate change and biodiversity science-policy agendas

Rewilding old fields: why additional effort is needed to restore wildflowers

Why has restoring old fields been a challenge for practitioners for decades? In their latest research, Tina Parkhurst, Suzanne Prober and Rachel Standish explore the efficacy of intervention efforts to understand limitations in current practices. Globally, there is a trend towards widespread abandonment of marginal agricultural land. Land abandonment is often associated with land degradation following long-term unsustainable agricultural practices, resulting in low productivity. Whilst … Continue reading Rewilding old fields: why additional effort is needed to restore wildflowers

Rewilding needs a conceptual framework. Is the adaptive cycle the answer?

Johan T. du Toit and Nathalie Pettorelli explore the differences between rewilding and restoration. The authors have adapted this post from an article originally shared by ZSL. Rewilding means different things to different people but in applied ecology it is now broadly agreed that the concept means reorganizing, retooling, or regenerating wildness in a degraded ecosystem. Contrary to what many seem to think, rewilding is … Continue reading Rewilding needs a conceptual framework. Is the adaptive cycle the answer?

Einsatz von Rotwild zur Erhaltung ökologisch wertvollen Grasslands

Kommentare zu einem neuen Artikel von Frederike Riesch et al. Von Jana Eccard und Annabel Smith. An version of this post is available in English here. Ökologisch wertvolles Offenland ist in Mitteleuropa oft durch historisch gewachsene Landnutzungsformen entstanden. Offene und Halboffene Flächen beinhalten zahlreiche seltene, streng geschützte Lebensraumtypen und sind Rückzugsräume für viele gefährdete Arten. Durch den Verlust solcher Landnutzungsformen wird heutzutage ein aktives Management zum … Continue reading Einsatz von Rotwild zur Erhaltung ökologisch wertvollen Grasslands