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Renee Borges discusses restoration ecology in the Anthropocene

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 25, 2024

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This video discusses the concept of restoration ecology, emphasizing its importance in the context of the Anthropocene, a term used to describe the current geological age viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Restoration ecology aims to bring ecosystems back to an earlier state, not necessarily the original state since that is often unknown.

The speaker explains two approaches to restoration: active and passive. Active restoration involves human intervention, such as planting native flora in areas like abandoned plantations to restore them to rainforest conditions. Passive restoration occurs when a previously disturbed ecosystem is allowed to recover naturally through processes like ecological succession, provided that there are appropriate sources of seeds and minimal human interference.

Challenges in restoration are highlighted, particularly concerning areas such as abandoned mines, which are often contaminated, and invasive species that disrupt natural ecosystems. This video also notes that restoration efforts must protect the targeted areas from further human interference to be successful.

Specific examples illustrate the difficulties of managing invasive species, such as Lantana camara in India and the brown tree snake in Guam, showcasing the broader implications of ecological mistakes—both unintentional and intentional—on native ecosystems.

The discussion connects to larger issues in the Anthropocene, including climate change and the need to understand the physiological tolerances of plants and animals to predict how they might adapt or relocate. It emphasizes the necessity for research that encompasses the soil microbiota as a critical element in ecosystem recovery and the interconnectedness of all trophic levels in nature.

Overall, the text calls for a comprehensive understanding of ecology to enhance restoration efforts and address the challenges posed by invasive species, climate change, and human-induced ecological disruptions.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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I think is a very important area,

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particularly in the Anthropocene.

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I'll come to the Anthropocene a little later,

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but I do want to address the issue

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of restoration ecology.

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So, if one wanted to give a simple definition,

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restoration Ecology is trying to bring back a system,

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an ecosystem, in this case, to an earlier state.

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Now, remember that I'm not saying original state,

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I'm saying earlier state,

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because we don't really know what the original was

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and how far back in time we would need

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to go in order to determine original.

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So I think for Restoration Ecologist, as always, this idea

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as to what is the state of the ecosystem

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that one would want get back to, and

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therefore very

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issue, and

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therefore, think of restoration ecology also in terms of

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facilitating a return to this earlier state.

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Yes. Now, restoration ecology

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can really be both an active as well as a passive process.

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And what of course do I mean by this,

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so many people are actively engaging in restoration.

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And for example, in India we have active,

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non-governmental organizations

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and research foundations trying to restore

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abandoned coffee plantations

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or tea plantations, trying to restore them back

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to original rainforest fragments.

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Assuming that, you know, the type of rainforest

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that they are wanting to get back to, is something

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that is existing in the neighborhood.

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Yes. So here you would actively plant

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seeds or saplings of these, trees

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or shrubs or you know, the flora

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and, put them in densities

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that you think would be appropriate to represent the

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original or earlier rainforest.

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So this would be active management

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where you establish nurseries and then you keep planting.

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Yes. Uh, passive restoration is where,

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let's say an abandoned fallow land, which is close enough

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to an original source of

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Seedlings or seeds,

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because to establish a forest, you need seeds,

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you need seedlings, and these have to come in passively.

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There's no active human intervention, which means that,

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let's say if it's birds that have to disperse seeds,

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the bird should not be intimidated in crossing the clearing

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because if there is a big clearing, birds should want

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to be able to fly across

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and in the process deposit seeds if

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that's what they are doing.

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Or if it's wind deposition, the wind should be favorable so

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that the seeds can be deposited.

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So here, this is a passive restoration process,

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which would only work if, there are these

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seed source areas which are close enough

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and where the ecological mechanisms are in place,

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you know, in order to get this reign

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of natural, seeds,

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and therefore the natural process of what is called

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ecological succession can take place, place.

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So in ecology, we have this term succession where we start

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with, you know, very early weedy species,

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which come in largely maybe because they are wind dispersed.

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And then slowly, the community changes

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changes until if, the restoration

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patch has been protected.

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And that's another big problem with restoration ecology.

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The patch has to be protected

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because, you know, the restoration process may start,

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but if that area is not,

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either fenced off physically from human intervention

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or it's not under some kind of monitoring,

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the restoration efforts, you know, can be, in vain.

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So, that's in a nutshell about

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a brief definition of,

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and an example of restoration ecology.

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But, there are some types of restorations

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that are really difficult

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or alterations, you know, that are very difficult.

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And I will talk a little bit more about this later.

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For example, abandoned open cast minds.

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You know, there is often this idea

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that abandoned open cast minds should be restored,

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can be restored.

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This is something that's quite difficult, especially

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because of the mine tailings

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and the high amounts of, pollutants and heavy metals

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and toxins that might be present in, the mine soil.

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Uh, so, you know,

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this is quite a difficult area

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in which restoration ecology is trying to make some inroads,

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but it's not always very, very easy.

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I also want to draw attention to restoration

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of certain parts of an ecosystem.

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So I've talked about a forest,

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but in a forest you have the canopy, the overstory,

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and you also have the understory.

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For example, now I'm speaking from my own country,

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India, where we have a terrible invasion

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of a neotropical plant called Ana Kamara,

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which is, I think rated as one

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of the world's most invasive plant species.

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And what Lantana has done,

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it was imported into India several times as an ornamental

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because it has very pretty flowers, but it has taken over

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and has invaded India's understory

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of many types of forest.

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What this has done is it's preventing the regeneration

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of natural, you know, shrubs, herbs, as well

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as the overstory.

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So Ana has come in

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and invaded the understory.

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Now, people are desperately talking about restoring the

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understory of these forests

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because you have elephants, you have tiger,

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you have this whole gamut of species,

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and oftentimes they, you know, can't even penetrate

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through the impenetrable,

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lantana kamara understory.

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So restoration

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of the understory is another important,

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aspect that one would need to think about.

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Uh, you know, where you are not, looking at the entire

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ecosystem, but you are wanting to pull out a component of

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that ecosystem so that it can be replaced by, you know,

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natural processes.

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So this is something that,

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many people in the world are grappling with,

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particularly with invasives.

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Yes. And if we have time later, we can come back,

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to this issue.

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If, you know, time permits, yes.

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I also wanna just flag restoration of aquatic systems

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because I don't want to only talk about terrestrial systems,

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but aquatic systems are quite difficult to restore.

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And here again, invasive species are very, very important.

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And unfortunately, there's not be much attention worldwide

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paid to invasive aquatic species, whether it be marine

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or fresh water and aquatic systems,

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because they are open systems, they're not closed.

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Um, invasive species can very easily, you know,

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you can't fence off an aquatic, system.

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You can't have, artificial boundaries that you place.

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And I think that is why every type of

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ecosystem presents its own particular challenges

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to the science of restoration.

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Ecology. The price can be really very high,

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for making mistakes.

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Yes. Um, if you'd like, I can give you a couple

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of examples on that.

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And of course, again,

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there can be an inadvertent mistake.

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Let's just say, aircraft, you,

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I you may have heard of this, this island of Guam, which is,

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in the Pacific, where the US has a military,

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in an air base, and they fly in planes from Papua New Guinea

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and the brown tree snake from Australia, Papua New Guinea,

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hopped onto some planes

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and landed onto Guam, which had no snakes,

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no predators, really.

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And this has become uncontrolled.

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And recently, very recently, people have measured the impact

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on, birds.

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Uh, the snake is wiped out.

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Birds, the snake is wiped out, nestlings, all sorts

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of life forms and the birds

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that are providing ecosystem services like sea dispersal,

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all of that has collapsed in Guam.

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So it's very, very hard.

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Now, you know, to recall, the brown tree Snake,

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they have tried hanging, rats laced

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with paracetamol, which is a painkiller

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because apparently if the snake eats the

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rats which have got paracetamol, they will die.

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And then that's how they are trying to control these snakes.

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Okay? So this is an example of,

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an an inadvertent mistake.

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Nobody wanted the brown tree snake to be introduced.

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If you take the cane towards in Australia,

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they were intentionally introduced from Mexico

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in 1935, I believe,

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to control the sugar cane beetles in Queensland.

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And the cane toads have now gone completely uncontrolled.

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They're very poisonous.

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They secrete poison from their skin glands.

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And the local Australian corner cannot

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handle the cane toads.

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They can't prey on them

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because they have not evolved with the cane toad,

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and therefore, you know, they get poisoned.

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So again, this was a intentional introduction.

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And now to restore the whole habitat,

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not only habitats, yes, habitats also

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because gain towards are sort of, you know, going,

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playing havoc in many Australian, you know,

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ecosystems.

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So this is another huge problem.

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So if you're taking things into,

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you know, habitat change,

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and an example from India is again, importing

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mesquite from Mexico to counter

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desertification to green areas in the desert.

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Now, mesquite from Mexico has gone wild

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and it's impossible to uproot the mesquite.

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It's very thorny, difficult

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to manage, the seeds.

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And, even if you cut it, it comes back

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by copying, you know, the cut thing starts sprouting.

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So, mesquite dominated habitats now

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are really difficult to bring back to any,

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former state, you know.

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So here are, as I've said, I've given you some examples of,

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of, inadvertent as well as intentional introductions

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that have really caused, tremendous damage

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and are difficult to bring back to original states.

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Since I said in the beginning

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that I will talk about the Anthropocene

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and the Anthropocene, is this a period of

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great climatic, changes that we are going through.

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Uh, and also coupled

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with these climatic changes are also changes in land use.

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Uh, land use has changed, deforestation has happened,

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which is very relevant to the restoration bit

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that we were talking about now

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because of anthropogenic factors

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that have caused all of these,

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great changes in weather patterns, in wind patterns,

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and so on and so forth.

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Uh, organisms that have been evolved, that have been evolved

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for earlier weather

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and climatic conditions are now unable to keep up.

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See, we humans can turn on an air conditioner,

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we can put on a heater,

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we can dive into our bunker when a hurricane hits.

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But animals can't do that. Plants can't do that.

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They either have to migrate

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and move, maybe move northwards if the climate is too hot.

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They have to try and move northwards

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or higher up in altitudes.

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So that means that we need

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to understand the physiological tolerances

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of plants and animals.

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And unfortunately we have very,

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very little knowledge of this.

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We have knowledge for crop plants, we have knowledge

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for domesticated animals,

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but we do not know this for wild animals and wild plants.

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So we have to be able to make predictions.

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Where are these animals

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and plants going to find their climatic refugee?

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So we have, we talk of climate refugees,

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but we talk of human climate refugees.

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We do not talk about animal

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and plant refugees.

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And a lot of our animals

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and plants are going become refugees in the future.

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So I think we need good

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research on physiological tolerances.

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How are individual plants, communities of plants?

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How is the soil microbiota pe

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people neglect the soil?

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And that's again, relates to restoration

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because if you've damaged, an environment so drastically

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that you've damaged the soil too, you can't just

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bring in things from zoos

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or bring in things from botanical gardens

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and expect them to flourish

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and then recreate, you know, an ecosystem.

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It doesn't work that way.

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Yes, because of damages to all the processes

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that are present within, the rhizosphere,

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which is the soil sphere, which in turn

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supports the plants

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and the plants in turn support, you know, the whole trophic,

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chain of life.

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So I think we really need to, to do

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so much in terms of understanding

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of right from the soil all the way up

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to other higher trophic levels.

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