structural and functional loss in restored wetland ecosystems在恢复湿地生态系统结构和功能损失.pdfVIP

Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems 1,2 1 ´ 3 4 David Moreno-Mateos *, Mary E. Power , Francisco A. Comın , Roxana Yockteng 1 Integrative Biology Department, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America, 2 Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stanford University, Woodside, California, United States of America, 3 Department of Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology – CSIC, Zaragoza, ´ Spain, 4 UMR CNRS 7205, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France Abstract Wetlands are among the most productive and economically valuable ecosystems in the world. However, because of human activities, over half of the wetland ecosystems existing in North America, Europe, Australia, and China in the early 20th century have been lost. Ecological restoration to recover critical ecosystem services has been widely attempted, but the degree of actual recovery of ecosystem functioning and structure from these efforts remains uncertain. Our results from a meta-analysis of 621 wetland sites from throughout the world show that even a century after restoration efforts, biological structure (driven mostly by plant assemblages), and biogeochemical functioning (driven primarily by the storage of carbon in wetland soils), remained on average 26% and 23% lower, respectively, than in reference sites. Either recovery has been very slow, or postdisturbance systems have moved towards alternative states that differ from reference conditions. We also found significant effects of environmental settings on the rate and degree of recovery. Large wetland areas ( .100 ha) and