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​Topic 30 - Restoration ecology - putting the system back together

Essential elements from Topic 30:
Here, we will 
  1. Describe several of the fundamental areas in which surfaces are disturbed and require restoration. Among these primary terrestrial disturbances in our region where restoration is required are strip mining, extraction mining with tailings, overgrazed grasslands, forest and desert shrub lands that have burned, and roadsides following road construction.
  2. Explore the fundamental reasons that landscapes are restored following disturbances:, including compensation for habitat loss, to deliver ecosystem services, to ensure resilience, and as a legal requirement following surface disturbances.
  3. Learn about the need to understand key aspects of ecophysiology where plant tolerance characteristics influence re-establishment following disturbance, including water stress, light stress, metal toxicity, and thermal (microclimates).
  4. Understand the importance of nutrient limits on plant establishment, including the constraints imposed by a lack of mycorrhizal species that facilitate nutrient uptake in higher plants.
  5. Understand the role that acidic soils, salinity, and/or toxic nutrients can play in limiting plant re-establishment.
  6. Explore the role of nurse plants in establishment of some species and of the ways in which longer-term plant successional processes alter vegetation and soil structure so as to allow other longer-lived species to become established.