Epilogue: Toward a Transdisciplinary Science of Ecological and Cultural Landscape Restoration

To bridge the gaps between restoration as a science and as a practice, restoration ecology has to broaden its scope toward transdisciplinarity in close cooperation with landscape ecologists and other holistic environmentally oriented scientists, professionals, practitioners, and stakeholders. For restoration, the ongoing transdisciplinary scientific revolution has opened new insights to cope with the complex bio‐hydro‐ and human‐ecological network relations. The Total Human Ecosystem (THE), integrating humans with all other organisms and their total environment at the highest level of the global hierarchy, should become the unifying holistic paradigm for all synthetic “eco‐disciplines.” These should link ecological knowledge, wisdom, and ethics with their scientific and professional expertise from the natural and social sciences and the humanities. As the tangible matrix for all organisms, including humans, our industrial Total Human Landscape is the concrete spatial and functional system of the THE. It forms a closely interlaced network of solar energy–powered natural and seminatural biosphere landscapes and fossil energy–powered urban and agro‐industrial technosphere landscapes. The self‐organizing and self‐creative restoration capacities of biosphere landscapes are driven by mutually amplifying auto‐ and cross‐catalytic feedback loops, but the rapidly expanding technosphere landscapes are driven by destabilizing “run‐away” feedback loops. To prevent a global breakdown and to ensure the sustainable future for both humankind and nature, these positive feedbacks have to be counteracted by restraining, cultural feedbacks of environmental planning and management, conservation, and restoration. As the theme of this special issue alludes to, this template should become an integral part of an urgently needed sustainability revolution, to which the transdisciplinary landscape restoration could contribute its important share.     

Exploring the Links between Post-Industrial Landscape History and Ecology through Participatory Methods

There is increasing recognition of the importance for local biodiversity of post-mining sites, many of which lie near communities that have suffered significant social and economic deprivation as the result of mine closures. However, no studies to date have actively used the knowledge of local communities to relate the history and treatment of post-mining sites to their current ecological status. We report a study of two post-mining sites in the Yorkshire coalfield of the UK in which the local community were involved in developing site histories and assessing plant and invertebrate species composition. Site histories developed using participatory GIS revealed that the sites had a mixture of areas of spontaneous succession and technical reclamation, and identified that both planned management interventions and informal activities influenced habitat heterogeneity and ecological diversity. Two groups of informal activity were identified as being of particular importance. Firstly, there has been active protection by the community of flower-rich habitats of conservation value (e.g. calcareous grassland) and distinctive plant species (e.g. orchids) which has also provided important foraging resources for butterfly and bumblebee species. Secondly, disturbance by activities such as use of motorbikes, informal camping, and cutting of trees and shrubs for fuel, as well as planned management interventions such as spreading of brick rubble, has provided habitat for plant species of open waste ground and locally uncommon invertebrate species which require patches of bare ground. This study demonstrates the importance of informal, and often unrecorded, activities by the local community in providing diverse habitats and increased biodiversity within a post-mining site, and shows that active engagement with the local community and use of local knowledge can enhance ecological interpretation of such sites and provide a stronger basis for successful future management.     

Bridging Restoration Science and Practice: Results and Analysis of a Survey from the 2009 Society for Ecological Restoration International Meeting

Developing and strengthening a more mutualistic relationship between the science of restoration ecology and the practice of ecological restoration has been a central but elusive goal of SERI since its inaugural meeting in 1989. We surveyed the delegates to the 2009 SERI World Conference to learn more about their perceptions of and ideas for improving restoration science, practice, and scientist/practitioner relationships. The respondents' assessments of restoration practice were less optimistic than their assessments of restoration science. Only 26% believed that scientist/practitioner relationships were “generally mutually beneficial and supportive of each other,” and the “science–practice gap” was the second and third most frequently cited category of factors limiting the science and practice of restoration, respectively (“insufficient funding” was first in both cases). Although few faulted practitioners for ignoring available science, many criticized scientists for ignoring the pressing needs of practitioners and/or failing to effectively communicate their work to nonscientists. Most of the suggestions for bridging the gap between restoration science and practice focused on (1) developing the necessary political support for more funding of restoration science, practice, and outreach; and (2) creating alternative research paradigms to both facilitate on‐the‐ground projects and promote more mutualistic exchanges between scientists and practitioners. We suggest that one way to implement these recommendations is to create a “Restoration Extension Service” modeled after the United States Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service. We also recommend more events that bring together a fuller spectrum of restoration scientists, practitioners, and relevant stakeholders.     

Global Distribution and Evolution of a Toxinogenic Burkholderia-Rhizopus Symbiosis

Toxinogenic endobacteria were isolated from a collection of Rhizopus spp. representing highly diverse geographic origins and ecological niches. All endosymbionts belonged to the Burkholderia rhizoxinica complex according to matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight biotyping and multilocus sequence typing, suggesting a common ancestor. Comparison of host and symbiont phylogenies provides insights into possible cospeciation and horizontal-transmission events.Bacterial symbionts and their metabolic potential play essential roles for many organisms. They may benefit from improved fitness, survival, and even acquired virulence (7, 12, 22). In the course of our studies of the biosynthesis of rhizoxin, the causative agent of rice seedling blight (10), we found that the phytotoxin is produced not by the fungus Rhizopus microsporus but by symbiotic bacteria (Burkholderia rhizoxinica) that reside within the fungus cytosol (13, 15, 23). Furthermore, cloning and sequencing of the rhizoxin biosynthesis gene cluster revealed the molecular basis of bacterial toxin production (14). In sum, this represents an unparalleled example for a symbiosis in which a fungus harbors bacteria for the production of a virulence factor. In analogy, we found that the first reported “mycotoxins” from lower fungi, the highly toxic cyclopeptides rhizonin A and B (25, 28), are also produced by symbiotic bacteria (Burkholderia endofungorum) and not by the fungus (16). While both rhizoxins and rhizonins have been believed to promote zygomycoses (21), there is no indication for toxin-producing endosymbiotic bacteria in clinical isolates (18).In nature, toxin production plays a pivotal role in the development of the fungus-bacterium association. Studies of the evolution of host resistance indicate that the association resulted from a pathogenicity mutualism shift in insensitive zygomycetes (24). The fungus lost its ability to sporulate independently and became totally dependent on endobacteria for reproduction through spores, thus warranting the persistence of the symbiosis and its efficient distribution through vegetative spores (17).To gain a broader view of the occurrence, biosynthetic potential, and relationship of toxinogenic endofungal bacteria, we investigated a collection of Rhizopus spp. consisting of 20 isolates classified as R. microsporus (of which 13 belong to R. microsporus var. microsporus, four to R. microsporus var. chinensis, two to R. microsporus var. oligosporus, and one to R. microsporus var. rhizopodiformis), one isolate classified as Rhizopus sp., and one Rhizopus oryzae strain. We initially monitored the presence of bacterial symbionts by PCR using universal primers (16S rRNA genes) and rhizoxin production in all available Rhizopus strains. Liquid cultivation of fungi in production medium with and without antibiotic followed by organic solvent extraction yielded crude extracts that were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS). In total, eight fungal strains were identified or confirmed as rhizoxin positive and thus expected to harbor endosymbionts. In all cases, this assumption was verified by PCR and confocal scanning microscopy. By means of an optimized protocol, we finally succeeded in the isolation and cultivation of all eight bacterial symbiont strains in pure cultures (isolates B1 to B8) (Table ​(Table11).

TABLE 1.

Fungal strains and their bacterial endosymbionts

The Human Elder in Nature, Culture and Society

The Human Elder in Nature, Culture and Society. David Gutmann. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. 250 pp.     

The Nature of Urban Soils and Their Role in Ecological Restoration in Cities

Current and predicted trends indicate that an increasing proportion of the world’s population is living in urban and suburban places. The nature of the urban environment becomes an important factor if we are concerned with the restoration and preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems in and around cities. This article highlights the varied impacts of cities on soils and their implications for restoration planning and expectations of restoration “success.” Urban soils exist in different historical and formational trajectories than their local nonurbanized counterparts due to direct anthropogenic disturbance and indirect environmental impacts from urbanization. Therefore, urban soils often exhibit altered physical, chemical, and biological characteristics in comparison to local nonurbanized soils. Several unique features of urban soils and urban ecosystems pose particular issues for ecological restoration or the improvement of degraded soil conditions in cities. The creation of novel soil types, conditions that promote invasion by non‐natives, the strong influence of past land use on soil properties, and the presence of strong interactions and alternative stable states set up unique difficulties for the restoration of urban soils. Soils in urban restorations are a medium that can be deliberately manipulated to improve site conditions or in the monitoring of soil conditions as indices of ecosystem status. Including an explicit role for strong manipulations of soils in urban ecosystems changes how we approach baselines, management, and reference conditions in urban ecological restoration. With an understanding of urban soil ecological knowledge, we can guide aspects of urban ecological restoration toward successful outcomes.     

VA菌根共生的起源和进化

ＶＡ菌根共生的起源和进化赵之伟（云南大学生物学系,昆明６５００９１）ＯｒｉｇｉｎａｎｄＥｖｏｌｕｔｉｏｎｏｆｔｈｅＶＡＭｙｃｏｒｒｈｉｚａｌＳｙｍｂｉｏｓｉｓ．ＺｈａｏＺｈｉｗｅｉ（ＢｉｏｌｏｇｙＤｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔｏｆＹｕｎｎａｎＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔ...     

Awareness and use of the Society for Ecological Restoration's International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration in Canada

The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) published the second edition of its International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration in 2019. We conducted a pan-Canadian study using semi-structured interviews with restoration professionals to explore the extent to which restoration practitioners are aware of the document and use it. Overall, we found that direct uptake of the document by practitioners was lower than expected, with approximately 37.7% of all participants that were both aware of and consulting the publication for guidance in their practice of ecological restoration. This is due in part to low awareness of the document itself, with only a small majority (56.5%) of interviewees being aware of it. Other reasons listed by practitioners such as the structure of the publication, its added value, and its suitability for on-the-ground work revealed why some individuals aware of the existence of the document still failed to consult it. Here, we present a more nuanced assessment of these observations and share our findings with the ecological restoration community to address this disconnection. With intensifying pressures to achieve restoration success internationally, SER's guidance is critical. We analyze why it seems guidance from SER is not being taken up as fully as it might, and ways in which future versions may be improved.     

Studying Cultural Evolution at the Tips: Human Cross-cultural Ecology

While human genetic variation is limited due to a bottleneck on the origin of the species ～200 kya, cultural traits can change more rapidly, and may do so in response to the variation in human habitats. Does cultural diversification simulate a natural experiment in evolution much like biodiversity so that cultural divergences and convergences can be interpreted in terms of the differences and similarities of local environments? Or is cultural diversity simply the result of human behavioral flexibility? Although the majority of cultural data comes from the tips of the hominin phylogeny, anthropologists can follow the example of evolutionary ecologists, who often compare the endpoints of phylogenies when that is all that is available. This article compares 97 contemporary indigenous language communities from around the world, and 24 of their cultural traditions, to help determine whether human cultures and their cultural traits are proportionately dispersed, as predicted by the neutral theory of biodiversity, or whether they show non-proportionalities that could be explained with evolutionary reasoning.     

Science, Stewardship, and Spirituality: The Human Body as a Model for Ecological Restoration

Ecological restoration is practiced by people of diverse backgrounds working at many different levels in a variety of settings. Portraying the human body as a metaphor of a natural ecosystem can be useful in identifying the breadth of strategies used to restore the natural environment. A technical approach, environmental stewardship, and more spiritual traditional attitudes to ecological restoration can be viewed as analogous to restoring health to the human body through an operation in a hospital, administering remedies to oneself from the medicine cabinet, and taking a broader holistic/preventative approach to cultivate the mind–body connection through, e.g., yoga.     

印度灵鹫峰文化景观的历史沿革与影响研究

印度灵鹫峰历史悠久、佛教影响深远,是亚洲早期山地景观开发中受人文因素影响的重要案例,然现今园林景观等相关研究领域对其关注不足。从风景园林历史研究的角度,梳理了灵鹫峰文化景观的历史沿革与重要影响,包括佛教文化在王舍城地区的形成过程、灵鹫峰景观建置、灵鹫峰图像史料遗存以及文化景观用典,阐释了其对杭州飞来峰文化景观的深刻影响,并分析了近现代考古研究对印度灵鹫峰再开发与旅游的影响,探讨了灵鹫峰对研究当代山地开发保护与可持续发展的意义。     

Ecological Restoration and Large-Scale Ecological Disturbance: The Effects of Drought on the Response by Fish to a Habitat Restoration Experiment

Human‐induced erosion regularly delivers massive quantities of fine sediments into streams and rivers forming large static bodies of sediment known as sand slugs, which smother in‐stream habitat, alter community structure, and decrease biodiversity. Sand slugs are widespread in parts of southeastern Australia as well as in many other parts of the world, and there is now considerable interest in restoring such affected streams. The reintroduction of large timber is widely suggested as a strategy for restoring habitat complexity, but this has rarely been tested in sand slug–affected streams. We examined the response of fish populations to wood addition to two streams in southeastern Australia that have been impacted by sand slugs. Manipulated sites (three per treatment) had either one or four timber structures added, and these sites were compared with (three) unmanipulated (control) sites before and after the manipulation occurred. Despite a supraseasonal drought during the study, we observed short‐term increases in the abundance of Mountain galaxias (Galaxias olidus) at the four‐structure sites, while both the four‐structure and the one‐structure treatments appeared to buffer against drought‐induced declines in two other species, River blackfish (Gadopsis marmoratus) and Southern pygmy perch (Nannoperca australis), relative to controls. However, drought eventually caused the complete loss of surface water from these streams and the loss of fish from both manipulated and unmanipulated sites. Thus, although the study supports the use of timber structures as a means of increasing local fish abundances, these beneficial effects were, in these streams, contingent upon permanency of flow. Because sedimentation has depleted the number of permanent refuge pools in these creeks, recovery rates of the fauna (i.e., resilience) are likely to be slow. We therefore conclude that in streams subjected to frequent disturbance, restoring refugia may be as, if not more, important as restoring what we term residential habitat.