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Primed for change: Developing ecological restoration for the 21st century
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Primed for change: Developing ecological restoration for the 21st century

N. Shackelford, R.J. Hobbs, J.M. Burgar, T.E. Erickson, J.B. Fontaine, E. Laliberté, C.E. Ramalho, M.P. Perring and R.J. Standish
Restoration Ecology, Vol.21(3), pp.297-304
2013
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Abstract

Restoration is a young and swiftly developing field. It has been almost a decade since the inception of one of the field's foundational documents-the Society for Ecological Restoration International Primer on Ecological Restoration (Primer). Through a series of organized discussions, we assessed the Primer for its currency and relevance in the modern field of ecological restoration. We focused our assessment on the section entitled "The Nine Attributes of a Restored Ecosystem" and grouped each of the attributes into one of four categories: species composition, ecosystem function, ecosystem stability, and landscape context. We found that in the decade since the document's inception, the concepts, methods, goals, and thinking of ecological restoration have shifted significantly. We discuss each of the four categories in this light with the aim of offering comments and suggestions on options for updating the Primer. We also include a fifth category that we believe is increasingly acknowledged in ecological restoration: the human element. The Primer is an important document guiding the practice of restoration. We hope that this critical assessment contributes to its ongoing development and relevance and more generally to the development of restoration ecology, particularly in our current era of rapid environmental change.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#14 Life Below Water
#15 Life on Land

Source: InCites

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InCites Highlights

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.40 Forestry
3.40.86 Plant Communities
Web Of Science research areas
Ecology
ESI research areas
Environment/Ecology
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