Faunal response to revegetation in agricultural areas of Australia: A review

Summary   We reviewed the literature on fauna in revegetation in Australian agricultural areas. Of 27 studies, 22 examined birds, with few studies focusing on other faunal groups (four to six studies for each remaining group) and nine examined multiple groups. Existing evidence suggests that revegetation provides habitat for many species of bird and some arboreal marsupials. Species richness of birds was greater in revegetated areas that were large, wide, structurally complex, old and near remnant vegetation. Bats, small terrestrial mammals, reptiles and amphibians did not appear to benefit significantly from revegetation in the short term. Evidence to date suggests that revegetation is not a good replacement of remnant vegetation for many species. Key information gaps exist in the faunal response to (i) revegetation as it ages; (ii) different structural complexities of revegetation; (iii) revegetation that is composed of indigenous vs. non-indigenous plant species; and (iv) revegetation that is in riparian vs. non-riparian locations. In addition, little is known on the value of revegetation for declining or threatened fauna, or of the composition of fauna in revegetation. There is a need to better understand the balance between quantity of revegetation in the landscape, and the quality or complexity of revegetation at the patch scale. Based on current evidence, we recommend revegetation be conducted in patches that are large, wide and structurally complex to maximize the benefits to fauna.     

Experimental revegetation of the regulated lake Ontojärvi in northern Finland

Water level regulation causes large-scale ecological changes in the littoral areas of lakes in northern Finland. If the summertime water level is raised, intensive erosion processes begin, causing a sudden decline in shore vegetation. The need for shore protection is obvious in areas of high recreational value. At lake Ontojärvi, planting experiments with littoral helophytes and bushes were carried out during the years 1990–92. All the experiments were carried out in the eroded sandy areas, which were partly protected by mechanical barriers. Several plant species were planted on the shore which had been treated with different peat mixtures, etc. The frequencies of the different species were followed monthly. After the first summer, the average survival rates were about 45 % due to the drying of seedlings. A rapid decrease in the survival rates took place during the high water level period in 1991 at which point only 20% of the planted individuals were alive. The best results were obtained for the helophyte Carex rostrata Stokes, of which 30% had survived erosion. Tall willows (Salix phylicifolia L.) were also erosion-resistant with a survival rate of 80%.     

海洋生境修复和生物资源养护原理与技术研究进展及展望

由于人类活动导致的海洋生境、生态系统以及生物资源的衰退已经引起了全球的高度重视。以生态修复的原理为基础,综述了海洋生境修复和生物资源养护的关键设施、关键技术、监测与效果评价以及综合管理的国内外研究进展,并对海洋生境修复与生物资源养护的研究热点和重点进行了展望,以期为我国海洋生境修复和生物资源养护提供参考。     

A perspective on the evolving science and practice of ecological restoration in Australia

Summary  This brief review of the science and practice of ecological restoration and rehabilitation in Australia shows that, from small isolated efforts in the first half of the 20th century, substantial numbers of programmes are steadily emerging from natural area, agricultural landscape, mining and aquatic management sectors. With support from numerous research programmes in the last two decades, restoration and rehabilitation work is increasing in scale and ecological rigour; and researchers and practitioners are increasingly engaging with the international restoration discourse. Future improvements in prioritization, goal-setting, monitoring, evaluation and communication are, however, still needed to improve Australia's capacity to meet its increasingly serious environmental challenges and do its bit to reduce and halt global degradation.     

Rehabilitation of aquatic habitats in warmwater streams damaged by channel incision in Mississippi

Channel incision has major impacts on stream corridor ecosystems, leading to reduced spatial habitat heterogeneity, greater temporal instability, less stream-floodplain interaction, and shifts in fish community structure. Most literature dealing with channel incision examines physical processes and erosion control. A study of incised warmwater stream rehabilitation was conducted to develop and demonstrate techniques that would be economically feasible for integration with more orthodox, extensively employed watershed stabilization techniques (e.g., structural bank protection, grade control structures, small reservoirs, and land treatment). One-km reaches of each of five northwest Mississippi streams with contributing drainage areas between 16 and 205 km2 were selected for a 5-year study. During the study two reaches were modified by adding woody vegetation and stone structure to rehabilitate habitats degraded by erosion and channelization. The other three reaches provided reference data, as two of them were degraded but not rehabilitated, and the third was only lightly degraded. Rehabilitation approaches were guided by conceptual models of incised channel evolution and fish community structure in small warmwater streams. These models indicated that rehabilitation efforts should focus on aggradational reaches in the downstream portions of incising watersheds, and that ecological status could be improved by inducing formation and maintenance of stable pool habitats. Fish and physical habitat attributes were sampled from each stream during the Spring and Fall for 5 years, and thalweg and cross-section surveys were performed twice during the same period. Rehabilitation increased pool habitat availability, and made the treated sites physically more similar to the lightly degraded reference site. Fish communities generally responded as suggested by the aforementioned conceptual model of fish community structure. Species composition shifted away from small colonists (principally cyprinids and small centrarchids) toward larger centrarchids, catostomids, and ictalurids. Fish density and species richness increased at one rehabilitated site but remained stable at the other, suggesting that the sites occupied different initial states and endpoints within the conceptual model, and differed in their accessibility to sources of colonizing organisms. These experiments suggest that major gains in stream ecosystem rehabilitation can be made through relatively modest but well-designed efforts to modify degraded physical habitats. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Mitigation Strategies in Some Motorway Embankments (Catalonia, Spain)

Erosion is one of the most dramatic problems arising after land restoration in semi‐arid Mediterranean areas. Topsoiling and subsequent hydroseeding are the main practices designed to reclaim motorway embankments, but there is a lack of information about the relationship between the ground cover furnished by the conventional seed mixtures and the erosion rate in the new created slopes. Ground cover and erosion rate were monitored simultaneously on some embankments of the Maresme motorway (Barcelona, Spain) during the first year after reclamation. Under similar geologic, topographic, and climatic conditions, the erosion rate was dependent on the percentage of herbaceous ground cover. Grasses accounted for most of the ground cover. Most of the seeded species did not contribute to the soil protection, and Lolium rigidum was the only grass growing satisfactorily on all the embankments. Legumes were important in autumn with Trifolium repens and Trifolium alexandrinum growing on the northwest‐ and southeast‐facing embankments, respectively. The erosion rate was intolerable where ground cover was <25%, and tolerable where ground cover was> 50%.     

矿山废弃地生态重建研究进展

提出了今后需要加强研究的几个问题 :(1)加强干旱半干旱地区矿山废弃地生态重建的理论与实践研究 ;(2 )筛选与培育耐重金属污染和超富集重金属的植物物种 ;(3)加强西部矿山废弃地共性问题的研究与探讨 ,即如何根据植物与土壤的关系将矿业废弃地划分为不同的类型 ,并在此基础上研究不同类型的废弃地与植物的相互关系 ,进而探讨出必要的人工辅助措施 ,这将是今后矿山废弃地生态重建机制研究的重点。     

Riverbank Stabilization of Lead Contaminated Soils Using Native Plant Vegetative Caps

Hamburg is a small borough located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. During the 1940s and 1950s, crushed automobile battery casings, containing high levels of lead, were used as fill in and around Hamburg. Several of the fill areas were along the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River and the Schuylkill River Canal. To reduce exposure to human and ecological receptors, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) initiated actions at several of the fill areas. Remediation actions at three of these fill areas, the Berry Property, the Hamburg Playground City Playground, and the Port Clinton Avenue site, utilized native plants, slope stabilization, and soil caps.

The Berry Property consisted of a flat, wooded area adjacent to the river. The Hamburg Playground consisted of a steep wooded slope between the river and the parking lot for the municipal park. The Port Clinton Avenue site consisted of flat and sloped, wooded, and old-field areas between the canal and Port Clinton Avenue. At each of the three sites, some of the contaminated soils were excavated and the remainder was graded and capped. The clean soil cap was then covered with an erosion control mat, seeded with native grasses, and planted with native shrubs. At the Hamburg Playground and Port Clinton Avenue site, the existing trees and much of the existing vegetation were maintained to preserve the slope stability and the natural environment. Great care was taken to ensure community access to the municipal park. Some of the important considerations included retaining the existing trees, dealing with invasive species, maintaining the plants during a drought, and channeling storm-water runoff. The work was coordinated with the Hamburg Borough Council, the Schuylkill River Greenway Association, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP).

The actions resulted in a stabillized slope with channelized storm water to control erosion and protect the river, a clean soil and plant cover that eliminates exposure to human and animal receptors, and an aesthetically pleasing and usable area that meets the needs of the community and the local conservation/environmental organization.