The acceptable range of variation within the desirable stable state as a measure of restoration success

Ian Oliver, J. Dorrough, S. K. Travers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is standard practice to compare the status of performance indicators between restoration and reference sites to monitor restoration progress and demonstrate restoration success. However, standard methods for defining the reference ecosystem, selecting reference sites, and measuring success are surprisingly lacking. Our study develops these methods based on the acceptable range of variation (ARV) within the desirable stable (reference) state as a measure of restoration success. The method (1) constrains application to the contemporary landscape to avoid the problematic historical range of variation concept and idealized restoration targets; (2) acknowledges the theory of alternative stable states and ecosystem dynamics and posits that the reference ecosystem should be clearly defined as a desirable stable (reference) state; and (3) shows that identifying an acceptable thematic (classification) scale and an acceptable management timeframe is essential to defining the desirable stable (reference) state. We present two approaches to calculating an ARV and a simulation method to explore reference site replication sufficiency. We apply the methods to two contrasting Australian restoration case studies and recommend that routine adoption of these methods would make a significant contribution to the science and practice of restoration ecology and to the assessment of restoration success.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere13800
Number of pages12
JournalRestoration Ecology
Volume31
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2023

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2022 State of New south wales. Restoration Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Ecological Restoration. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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