Science Explorer
Exploring: Management And Restoration
Palila Restoration Research, 1996−2012. Summary and management implications
The Palila Restoration Project was initiated in 1996 by the U.S. Geological Survey to assist government agencies mitigate the effects of realigning Saddle Road (Highway 200) through Palila Critical Habitat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1998, Federal Highway Administration 1999). Ecological research on the palila (Loxioides bailleui), an...
Endangered species management and ecosystem restoration: Finding the common ground
Management actions to protect endangered species and conserve ecosystem function may not always be in precise alignment. Efforts to recover the California Ridgway’s Rail (Rallus obsoletus obsoletus; hereafter, California rail), a federally and state-listed species, and restoration of tidal marsh ecosystems in the San Francisco Bay estuary...
The diversity-biomass-productivity relationships in grassland management and restoration
Diversity, biomass, and productivity, the three key community/ecosystem variables, are interrelated and pose reciprocal influences on each other. The relationships among the three variables have been a central focus in ecology and formed two schools of fundamentally different nature with two related applications: (1) management - how biomass...
The ecology, restoration, and management of southeastern floodplain ecosystems: a synthesis
Floodplain ecosystems of the southeastern United States provide numerous services to society, but hydrologic and geomorphic alterations, agricultural practices, water quality and availability, and urban development continue to challenge restorationists and managers at multiple spatial and temporal scales. These challenges are further exacerbated...
The ecology, restoration, and management of southeastern floodplain ecosystems: A synthesis
Floodplain ecosystems of the southeastern United States provide numerous services to society, but hydrologic and geomorphic alterations, agricultural practices, water quality and availability, and urban development continue to challenge restorationists and managers at multiple spatial and temporal scales. These challenges are further exacerbated...
Sulfur in the South Florida ecosystem: Distribution, sources, biogeochemistry, impacts, and management for restoration
Sulfur is broadly recognized as a water quality issue of significance for the freshwater Florida Everglades. Roughly 60% of the remnant Everglades has surface water sulfate concentrations above 1 mg l-1, a restoration performance measure based on present sulfate levels in unenriched areas. Highly enriched marshes in the northern Everglades have...
Portfolio theory as a management tool to guide conservation and restoration of multi-stock fish populations
Habitat degradation and harvest have upset the natural buffering mechanism (i.e., portfolio effects) of many large-scale multi-stock fisheries by reducing spawning stock diversity that is vital for generating population stability and resilience. The application of portfolio theory offers a means to guide management activities by quantifying the...
Using conservation value to assess land restoration and management alternatives across a degraded oak savanna landscape
1. Managers considering restoration of landscapes often face a fundamental challenge - what should be the habitat composition of the restored landscape? We present a method for evaluating an important conservation trade-off inherent in making that decision. 2. Oak savannas and grasslands were historically widespread across central North America...
Genetic diversity, kinship analysis, and broodstock management of captive Atlantic sturgeon for population restoration
Captive Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus considered for use as broodstock in a restoration program were genotyped using nuclear DNA microsatellites and compared to wild collections from the Hudson River, New York (source of parents of the captive sturgeon) and from Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. Because the potential broodfish were the...
Macroinvertebrate instream flow studies after 20 years: A role in stream management and restoration
Over the past two decades of refinement and application of instream flow evaluations, we have examined the hydraulic habitat of aquatic macroinvertebrates in a variety of conditions, along with the role of these macroinvertebrates in sustaining ecosystem integrity. Instream flow analyses assume that predictable changes in channel flow...
Genetic diversity of wild and hatchery lake trout populations: Relevance for management and restoration in the Great Lakes
The biological diversity of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush in the upper Great Lakes was historically high, consisting of many recognizable morphological types and discrete spawning populations. During the 1950s and 1960s, lake trout populations were extirpated from much of the Great Lakes primarily as a result of overfishing and predation by the...
Projected impacts of climate, urbanization, water management, and wetland restoration on waterbird habitat in California’s Central Valley
The Central Valley of California is one of the most important regions for wintering waterbirds in North America despite extensive anthropogenic landscape modification and decline of historical wetlands there. Like many other mediterranean-climate ecosystems across the globe, the Central Valley has been subject to a burgeoning human population and...
Data for projected impacts of climate, urbanization, water management, and wetland restoration on waterbird habitat in California’s Central Valley
he Central Valley of California is one of the most important regions for wintering waterbirds in North America despite extensive anthropogenic landscape modification and decline of historical wetlands there. Like many other mediterranean-climate ecosystems across the globe, the Central Valley has been subject to a burgeoning human population...