Determining Ecological Equivalence in Service-to-Service Scaling of Salt Marsh Restoration

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• 作者：ELIZABETH STRANGE ; HECTOR GALBRAITH ; SARAH BICKEL ; DAVE MILLS ; DOUGLAS BELTMAN and JOSHUA LIPTON
• 关键词：KEY WORDS ; Salt marsh ; Ecological equivalence ; Habitat equivalency analysis ; Ecosystem services ; Natural resource damage assessment
• 刊名：Environmental Management
• 出版年：2002
• 出版时间：February 2002
• 年：2002
• 卷：29
• 期：2
• 页码：290-300
• 全文大小：207 KB
• 刊物类别：Earth and Environmental Science
• 刊物主题：Environment
  Environmental Management
  Ecology
  Nature Conservation
  Atmospheric Protection, Air Quality Control and Air Pollution
  Forestry Management
  Waste Water Technology, Water Pollution Control, Water Management and Aquatic Pollution
  
• 出版者：Springer New York
• ISSN：1432-1009

文摘

The amount of ecological restoration required to mitigate or compensate for environmental injury or habitat loss is often based on the goal of achieving ecological equivalence. However, few tools are available for estimating the extent of restoration required to achieve habitat services equivalent to those that were lost. This paper describes habitat equivalency analysis (HEA), a habitat-based “service-to-service” approach for determining the amount of restoration needed to compensate for natural resource losses, and examines issues in its application in the case of salt marsh restoration. The scientific literature indicates that although structural attributes such as vegetation may recover within a few years, there is often a significant lag in the development of ecological processes such as nutrient cycling that are necessary for a fully functioning salt marsh. Moreover, natural variation can make recovery trajectories difficult to define and predict for many habitat services. HEA is an excellent tool for scaling restoration actions because it reflects this ecological variability and complexity. At the same time, practitioners must recognize that conclusions about the amount of restoration needed to provide ecological services equivalent to those that are lost will depend critically on the ecological data and assumptions that are used in the HEA calculation.