Comprehensive Analysis of Ecological Restoration Technologies in Typical Ecologically Vulnerable Regions around the World

Ecosystem degradation is a key issue facing the world. Rapid economic development has been achieved at the cost of degradation and environmental pollution, which has affected human well-being, particularly in fragile ecosystems. To achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals, it is essential to develop technologies to control degradation and restore ecosystems. However, a comprehensive assessment of the different types of degradation, of the methods used in different regions, and of the differences between regions has not been carried out. In this study, we examined databases of international organizations, interviewed experts to evaluate existing methods based on five dimensions, identified restoration technologies (hereinafter referred to as RTs) suitable for different types of degradation, and summarized the restoration effectiveness in different regions. We found 101 RTs around the world and found that the same technology can be applied in different regions. The RTs were dominated by engineering and biological RTs, accounting for 19.2–26.7% and 33.4–34.7% of the total, respectively. 45, 30, and 26 RTs were suitable for controlling soil erosion, sandy desertification, and degraded ecosystem, respectively. The average evaluation index of RTs for controlling these degradation problems are 0.81, 0.78, and 0.73, respectively meaning RTs used to fight soil erosion are more effective. The potential to transfer a technology to other regions and the readiness of the technologies were low for degraded ecosystems, and the ease of use was high for sandy desertification RTs. Although a given technology could be applied to different regions or degradation types, results varied. Our study will help ecosystem managers to deal with specific degradation issues, phases, and severities, and will support the transfer of RTs among regions.

An Agro-Based Society after Post-Industrial Society: From a Perspective of Economic Growth Paradigm

Since the Industrial Revolution, a new era has arisen called the Anthropocene, in which human actions have become the main driver of global environmental change outside the stable environmental state of the Holocene. During the Holocene, environmental change occurred naturally, and the Earth’s regulatory capacity maintained the conditions that enabled human development. Resource overexploitation of the industrial “Anthropocene”, under the principle of profit maximization, has led to planetary ecological crises, such as overloaded carbon sinks and climate changes, vanishing species, degraded ecosystems, and insufficient natural resources. Agro-based society, in which almost all demands of humans can be supported by agriculture, is characterized by life production. The substitution of Agro-based society for a post-industrial society is an evolutionary result of social movement, it is an internal requirement of a sustainable society for breaking through the resource constraint of economic growth. The core feature of agriculture is to use organisms as production objects and rely on life processes to achieve production goals. The substitution of Agro-based society for a post-industrial society is the precondition for a sustainable carbon cycle, breaking through the resource limits of the industrial “Anthropocene”, alleviating the environmental pressure of economic development, and promoting society from increasing disorderly entropy to orderly decreasing entropy. Meanwhile, technological advancements and growing environmental awareness of society make it feasible for the substitution of an agro-based society for a post-industrial society.

Forecasting floral futures: leveraging genetic and microenvironmental data to improve seed provenancing under climate change

Revegetation projects seeking to restore degraded ecosystems face a major challenge in sourcing appropriate plant material, as identifying plants adapted to future climates requires knowledge of plant performance under novel conditions. In order to support climate-resilient provenancing efforts, we develop a quantitative trait model that integrates genetic and microenvironmental variation. We train our model with multiple natural plantings of Arabidopsis thaliana and predict days-to-bolting and fecundity across the species’ European range. Model prediction accuracy was high for days-to-bolting and moderate for fecundity, with the majority of trait variation being explained by temperature variation. Concerningly, fecundity was predicted to decline under future conditions, although this response was heterogeneous across regions, and could be offset through the introduction of specific genotypes. Our study highlights the value of predictive models to aid seed provenancing and improve the success of revegetation projects.

Environmental Flow Requirements of Estuaries: Providing Resilience to Current and Future Climate and Direct Anthropogenic Changes

Estuaries host unique biodiversity and deliver a range of ecosystem services at the interface between catchment and the ocean. They are also among the most degraded ecosystems on Earth. Freshwater flow regimes drive ecological processes contributing to their biodiversity and economic value, but have been modified extensively in many systems by upstream water use. Knowledge of freshwater flow requirements for estuaries (environmental flows or E-flows) lags behind that of rivers and their floodplains. Generalising estuarine E-flows is further complicated by responses that appear to be specific to each system. Here we critically review the E-flow requirements of estuaries to 1) identify the key ecosystem processes (hydrodynamics, salinity regulation, sediment dynamics, nutrient cycling and trophic transfer, and connectivity) modulated by freshwater flow regimes, 2) identify key drivers (rainfall, runoff, temperature, sea level rise and direct anthropogenic) that generate changes to the magnitude, quality and timing of flows, and 3) propose mitigation strategies (e.g., modification of dam operations and habitat restoration) to buffer against the risks of altered freshwater flows and build resilience to direct and indirect anthropogenic disturbances. These strategies support re-establishment of the natural characteristics of freshwater flow regimes which are foundational to healthy estuarine ecosystems.

Applying a Complex Integrated Method for Mapping and Assessment of the Degraded Ecosystem Hotspots from Romania

To meet the global challenges of climate change and human activity pressure on biodiversity conservation, it has become vital to map such pressure hotspots. Large areas, such as nation-wide regions, are difficult to map from the point of view of the resources needed for such mapping (human resources, hard and soft resources). European biodiversity policies have focused on restoring degraded ecosystems by at least 10% by 2020, and new policies aim to restore up to 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030. In this study, methods developed and applied for the assessment of the degradation state of the ecosystems in a semi-automatic manner for the entire Romanian territory (238,391 km2) are presented. The following ecosystems were analyzed: forestry, grassland, rivers, lakes, caves and coastal areas. The information and data covering all the ecoregions of the Romania (~110,000 km2) were analyzed and processed, based on GIS and remote sensing techniques. The largest degraded areas were identified within the coastal area (49.80%), grassland ecosystems (38.59%) and the cave ecosystems (2.66%), while 27.64% of rivers ecosystems were degraded, followed by 8.52% of forest ecosystems, and 14.05% of lakes ecosystems. This analysis can contribute to better definition of the locations of the most affected areas, which will yield a useful spatial representation for future ecological reconstruction strategy.

Ecological, Commercial and Economic Significance of the Tree Lucerne: A Review

Currently, the Lucerne tree is becoming well-established and adapted in many parts of the world. It can be grow in and around apple trees, near Rahminus prinoides, and within the vegetables. According to African Rising Stations project on Tree Lucerne, line planting, cutting, periodic pruning, and reduce the height by 1.5 m is that the simplest caring mechanism. It has also been shown that this care can result in a 20% increase in DM production on grazing alone. It store about 6 tonnes CO2 equivalent per hectare per year and highest N-fixer among legume, it fixes about 590 kg of N2 per year per hectare. It is mainly used for animal husbandry, treat degraded ecosystems and to have good nutrients. Beyond the nutrients, it is an alternative food guarantee as it can withstand drought and stay green during the summer, especially when there is a shortage of food. Lucerne tree is used as a raw material for pulp and paper work as a group of eucalyptus, holocellulose, lingin, xylan and acetyl groups. However, in addition to fodder, there are significant limitations on energy, paper, tissue and chemical use. The leftovers should be converted into useful products. Therefore, these plants should be used for good quality of wood trim for grain and paperwork.

Soil inoculum identity and rate jointly steer microbiomes and plant communities in the field

The importance of soil inoculation to engineer soil microbiomes and ultimately entire ecosystems is becoming widely acknowledged. Inoculation with soil from different ecosystems can induce directional changes in soil and plant communities and promote the restoration of degraded ecosystems. However, it is unknown how such inoculations influence the soil microbiome, how much inoculum is needed, and whether inocula collected from similar ecosystems will steer the microbiome in different directions. We conducted a three-year soil inoculation field experiment at a degraded grassland and used two different soil inocula both from grasslands with three inoculation rates. Our results show that inoculation with soil that originates from different donor grasslands steers the soil microbiome as well as the plant communities at the inoculated site which was a degraded grassland into different directions and that these effects were stronger with increasing amount of soil used to inoculate. Inoculation with upland meadow soil introduced more keystone genera and resulted in more complex biotic networks in the soil than inoculation with meadow steppe soil. Our experiment highlights that soil inoculation can steer soil microbiomes in the field and that the direction and speed of development depend on the origin and the amount of soil inoculum used.