🌾World Biogeography
Rewilding is a conservation approach that aims to restore natural processes and wilderness areas. It focuses on reintroducing keystone species and creating self-sustaining ecosystems, addressing large-scale ecological restoration and species distribution patterns in World Biogeography.
The concept emerged in the 1990s as a response to traditional conservation practices. It's grounded in trophic cascades, top-down ecosystem regulation, and draws from paleoecological research to understand historical ecosystem compositions and guide restoration efforts.
Definition of rewilding
- Rewilding emerges as a conservation approach aiming to restore and protect natural processes and wilderness areas
- Focuses on reintroducing keystone species and allowing ecosystems to become self-sustaining
- Connects to World Biogeography by addressing large-scale ecological restoration and species distribution patterns
Origins of rewilding concept
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Frontiers | ‘WildLift’: An Open-Source Tool to Guide Decisions for Wildlife Conservation View original
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Frontiers | Global Change Impacts on Forest Soils: Linkage Between Soil Biota and Carbon ... View original
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Spatial Multi-Criteria Based Analysis to Assess Dynamics and Vulnerability of Forest Ecosystems ... View original
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Frontiers | ‘WildLift’: An Open-Source Tool to Guide Decisions for Wildlife Conservation View original
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Top images from around the web for Origins of rewilding concept
Frontiers | ‘WildLift’: An Open-Source Tool to Guide Decisions for Wildlife Conservation View original
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Frontiers | Global Change Impacts on Forest Soils: Linkage Between Soil Biota and Carbon ... View original
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Spatial Multi-Criteria Based Analysis to Assess Dynamics and Vulnerability of Forest Ecosystems ... View original
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Frontiers | ‘WildLift’: An Open-Source Tool to Guide Decisions for Wildlife Conservation View original
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Frontiers | Global Change Impacts on Forest Soils: Linkage Between Soil Biota and Carbon ... View original
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- Emerged in the 1990s as a response to traditional conservation practices
- Developed by conservation biologists Michael Soulé and Reed Noss
- Inspired by the work of Dutch ecologist Frans Vera on forest dynamics
- Builds on island biogeography theory and conservation biology principles
Ecological basis for rewilding
- Grounded in the concept of trophic cascades and top-down regulation of ecosystems
- Recognizes the importance of keystone species in shaping ecosystem structure and function
- Draws from paleoecological research to understand historical ecosystem compositions
- Incorporates principles of landscape ecology and metapopulation dynamics
Goals and objectives
- Rewilding aims to restore ecological processes and enhance ecosystem resilience
- Seeks to reestablish natural disturbance regimes and species interactions
- Connects to World Biogeography by addressing global patterns of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation
Ecosystem restoration
- Focuses on restoring degraded habitats to a more natural state
- Aims to reestablish ecological processes and functions
- Includes restoring natural fire regimes, hydrological cycles, and nutrient cycling
- Emphasizes self-sustaining ecosystems with minimal human intervention
Biodiversity conservation
- Targets conservation of threatened and endangered species
- Aims to increase genetic diversity within populations
- Focuses on restoring species assemblages and community structures
- Includes reintroducing extirpated species and protecting existing populations
Ecological connectivity
- Emphasizes creating and maintaining habitat corridors
- Aims to facilitate species movement and gene flow between populations
- Focuses on landscape-scale conservation planning
- Includes creating wildlife bridges and underpasses to overcome habitat fragmentation
Types of rewilding
- Different approaches to rewilding address various temporal and spatial scales
- Connects to World Biogeography by considering historical and contemporary species distributions
- Influences conservation strategies across different biogeographic regions
Pleistocene rewilding
- Aims to restore ecosystems to a state similar to the late Pleistocene (approximately 13,000 years ago)
- Focuses on reintroducing extinct megafauna or their ecological proxies
- Includes proposals to introduce elephants and lions to North America
- Considers the use of de-extinction technologies to resurrect extinct species (woolly mammoth)
Trophic rewilding
- Emphasizes restoring trophic interactions and food web complexity
- Focuses on reintroducing apex predators and large herbivores
- Aims to reestablish top-down regulation of ecosystems
- Includes reintroducing wolves, bears, and large ungulates to their former ranges
Passive rewilding
- Involves minimal human intervention and allows natural processes to unfold
- Focuses on removing human-made barriers and ceasing intensive land management
- Allows for natural succession and species recolonization
- Includes abandoning agricultural land and removing dams to restore river systems
Key components
- Essential elements of rewilding projects that drive ecosystem changes
- Connects to World Biogeography by addressing species interactions and landscape-level processes
- Influences the structure and function of ecosystems across biogeographic regions
Keystone species reintroduction
- Focuses on reintroducing species with disproportionate effects on ecosystems
- Aims to restore ecological processes and trophic cascades
- Includes reintroducing top predators (wolves, lynx) and ecosystem engineers (beavers)
- Considers the cascading effects of keystone species on ecosystem structure and function
Trophic cascades
- Describes the indirect effects of predators on lower trophic levels
- Emphasizes the importance of top-down regulation in ecosystems
- Includes changes in vegetation structure due to herbivore behavior modifications
- Considers the role of fear in shaping ecosystem dynamics (landscape of fear)
Habitat corridors
- Focuses on creating and maintaining connectivity between habitat patches
- Aims to facilitate species movement and gene flow
- Includes designing wildlife overpasses and underpasses to overcome barriers
- Considers the importance of stepping stones and habitat mosaics in landscape connectivity
Rewilding strategies
- Various approaches to implementing rewilding projects across different scales
- Connects to World Biogeography by addressing species range expansions and habitat restoration
- Influences conservation planning and management across biogeographic regions
Core areas vs buffer zones
- Emphasizes the importance of large, protected core areas for rewilding
- Focuses on creating buffer zones around core areas to reduce edge effects
- Includes designing graduated land-use intensity from core to periphery
- Considers the role of human activities in buffer zones (sustainable agriculture, ecotourism)
Reintroduction vs translocation
- Distinguishes between reintroducing species to their historical ranges and moving them to new areas
- Focuses on selecting appropriate source populations for reintroductions
- Includes considerations of genetic diversity and local adaptations
- Addresses the challenges of reintroducing species to altered environments
Assisted colonization
- Involves moving species outside their historical ranges to suitable habitats
- Focuses on helping species adapt to climate change and habitat loss
- Includes considerations of potential ecological impacts on recipient ecosystems
- Addresses ethical concerns and uncertainties associated with assisted colonization